Learning experience: an NFL rookie minicamp: drills, interviews, a dreade tweak—it's all part of Titans rookie Pacman Jones' introduction to the NFL

INSIDE AN NFL ROOKIE MINICAMP

It's the Friday after the NFL draft, the first practice at the Tennessee Titans' first rookie minicamp, and Pacman Jones is loose. A cornerback taken with the sixth overall pick of the draft, Pacman already is talking trash with his new buddy, wide receiver Brandon Jones, who calls out Pacman during one-on-one passing drills.

Pacman happily accepts the challenge, and Brandon, a third-round pick from Oklahoma, never catches a ball. "Just good defense," says Pacman, smiling.

After morning practice, the rookie Titans head to lunch, where Pacman downs a chicken breast and some pasta and jokes around with his new friends, pretending to pour soda on Brandon Jones and chatting with everyone around him. No one, regardless of his draft position, is ignored by the top rookie in camp.

The day couldn't be going any better for Pacman Jones. (OK, his real first name is Adam, but no one calls him that his mom gave him the name Pacman.) Jones spent much of the morning showing off the skills that made him the first defensive player selected, and early in the afternoon practice he's catching everything in sight. The contagious energy and confidence that appealed to Tennessee are on full display. Hopes are high among the Titans, a 5-11 team last season, that Jones will be the cornerstone of a defensive renaissance.

He lines up, backpedals a few steps, then turns and sprints straight back. The almost 5-10 corner looks over his shoulder and leaps to make the catch. But the ball is too far past him. It hits his fingertips and bounces away.

Jones lands awkwardly and limps off the field. He later returns but can't perform the drill.

The smile that had been etched on his face for the past several hours is gone.

The Titans run a rookie minicamp for a reason. They want to give their first-year players attention without the veterans around. "Rookie minicamp is an orientation," says defensive backs coach Everett Withers. "It's just to get them familiar with how we meet, how we get ready, how we line up, how we introduce practice."

The rookies' eye-opening starts at 7:30 Thursday night at their first team dinner. Fisher stands up and tells the players they have spent their whole lives dreaming of making it to the NFL and that this is where the dream becomes a reality. They should not be intimidated, he says, but there is much work to be done. Their goal: to make the Titans a better team. It won't be easy, individually or together. And it starts now.

Curfew is 11 p.m., and the Friday schedule calls for a 6 a.m. wakeup time. That's pretty early to get up, but Jones does the schedule one better. He arrives at the training facility at 6. "This is business," he says. "You've got to be early."

He has his media photo taken and eats breakfast. By 6:40, he's lying across the benches in front of the lockers, taking a quick break and getting ready for the rest of his day. He has his physical and goes to the weight room for a baseline strength test, which tells the Titans where to begin his weight-training program.

He gets his NFL number. He wants 23, but safety Donnie Nickey has it and Jones doesn't feel like paying for it. So he takes No. 32.

There is a position meeting with Withers. Here, the defensive backs get a look at some of the Titans' schemes and their places in them. After the meeting, it's off to his first practice, where the rookies learn the pace of NFL practices and drills. There is more information to process at a faster speed than in college, and Fisher likes watching the rookies' heads swivel.

For Jones, the morning practice has good and bad moments. His aggressiveness, an important part of his success at West Virginia, causes him some trouble in one-on-one drills. He bites on moves, sometimes getting beat when going for the ball instead of playing the man. Despite the error of effort, Fisher sees Jones' maturity and ability to adjust after making mistakes. Withers, too, is impressed. "He's a heck of an athlete," he says of Jones. "He's got great movement skills. He doesn't get stressed out in change-of-direction drills."

Jones' work in one drill in particular makes Withers smile. It is a backpedaling drill in which the players run on an angle but keep their shoulders square. It is not an easy drill for most players, but Jones masters it from the first step. "It was as natural as anyone I've seen do it," says Withers. "It's the type of drill that we're still working on with veterans two and three years later."

After morning practice, the rookies shower and eat lunch. Then it's back to the weight room, off to a special teams meeting--Jones will be returning punts and possibly some kicks, Fisher says--and time to get taped up again for afternoon practice.

Before the entire team takes the field, Jones and seven other players practice returning punts. Fisher stands facing the players. He watches the ball come over his head, then watches his rookies approach the ball, catch it and run a few steps. Jones has few problems, even when Fisher instructs the players to catch one-handed.