One Titan you can't help but notice early in camp — Taywan Taylor

Malcolm Butler was up, and he had a specific adversary in mind. It was not Taywan Taylor’s turn in the one-on-one drill, but Butler pointed at Taylor and invited him to come out and play.

Taylor obliged. And the hesitation move he put on Butler, leaving Butler lurching as Taylor turned upfield to haul in a touchdown pass from Blaine Gabbert, is best described as vicious. Much more vicious than Taylor’s reaction after the play, an opportunity earned but mostly forfeited to get at Butler as Butler has done to so many in the early stages of Titans training camp.

“You know me, I’m just, make a play and let my play talk and go on back to the huddle,” Taylor said of that moment Saturday, the team’s first day in pads. “I cracked a smile, though. He knows it’s a win. That’s what I told him.”

And that’s about as much as you’re going to get from Taylor, whose Twitter handle —@SilentGrind2 — may be the most fitting on the team. The excitement about Taylor’s game gradually quieted during a frustrating rookie season as well, but it’s time to crank things back up.

The Titans need him. The Titans have demonstrated they believe in and will rely on him. And in the first week of camp — for whatever a first week of camp is worth — he’s justifying that faith.

“I know it takes more than just enough to be great – and I don’t want to be good, I want to be great,” said Taylor, whose offseason included a week in Florida doing some unique training with mentor and teammate Rishard Matthews.

“When you have a guy that talented, he can do so much for you,” Marcus Mariota said of the 5-foot-11, 203-pound Taylor, a 2017 third-round pick out of Western Kentucky who had 16 catches for 231 yards and a touchdown last season.

“Oh, he looks a lot more sure of himself,” Titans safety Kevin Byard said of Taylor. “I wouldn’t say he looks any faster because he’s already been fast. But he’s definitely making a lot more plays, man … I think he’s a lot more sure of himself when it comes to either the play call or just reading things. He’s looked great so far.”

A quiet, not pointless, rookie season

Butler, the free agent signee from New England, has been one of the early stories of camp with his contagious swagger before, during and after plays. Right with him is Corey Davis, the second-year receiver who will be as important as anyone not named Mariota in 2018. Davis was performing as hoped in camp before first-year coach Mike Vrabel gave him a planned day off Sunday.

That put Davis next to Matthews (undisclosed injury) on the shelf for a day. Taylor, who already had been getting Matthews’ first-team reps on the outside and is ahead of Tajae Sharpe in the pecking order, was the clear No. 1 guy. He responded with more big plays downfield.

That’s not to say he’s been perfect in camp. Mariota threw a pick over the middle on the first day to Logan Ryan, on a check down intended for Taylor. Had Taylor run the route correctly, Ryan would have had to go through him to get to the ball.

“That was on me, I should have come flatter,” Taylor said. “But I drifted.”

And little details like that were missing enough last season that Taylor couldn’t carve out consistent reps in a receiving corps starving for playmakers. More than once, former head coach Mike Mularkey and offensive coordinator Terry Robiskie said Taylor needed to do a better job of understanding the playbook and the looks of opposing defenses.

At Western Kentucky, Taylor had simple reads in a wide-open offense that he departed with school records in catches (253), yards (4,234) and touchdowns (41). He admittedly wasn’t ready for all he saw as a rookie. He also doesn’t consider it a lost season.

“I think it was good last year because I was behind some vets that actually know football,” Taylor said. “They gave me a lot and I was able to be a sponge, soak up some information from those guys. I think last year actually helped me more than it hurt me. I was definitely grateful for it.”

Taywan Taylor and Rishard Matthews, going ‘next level’

Matthews and Taylor got close, and Taylor spend a week over the summer at Matthews’ home in Fort Lauderdale, Fla. They spent hours studying film of defenses and defensive backs they will see this season. They went to a training facility and spent more hours catching footballs in a dark room with strobe lights going off randomly around them. 

“Some next-level stuff,” said Taylor, who avoided footballs to the face. “I think I got way better just from that training. … It helps you, when your mind is going in a thousand different directions on the field, you’re just able to settle down.”

None of this assures Taylor of a huge step forward, but Jon Robinson’s lack of moves at receiver suggest confidence in Taylor. His play so far suggests why. A No. 3 receiver who puts some vertical fear in a defense can only help Matt LaFleur’s offense.

And newcomers who didn’t know much about Taylor have taken notice. Receivers coach Rob Moore said during minicamp that Taylor is faster than he realized and “has a lot of upside.” He said Monday that when Taylor “puts it all together, man, he’s a heck of a player and we plan on utilizing that speed.”

“I did not know much about Taywan,” Butler said, “but he’s really stepping up.”

Butler wouldn’t be calling him out for a rep otherwise. Calling Butler out after torching him is not in the nature of Taylor, a guy with an elementary education degree who is as polite as he is quiet. But a vicious move and a smile can say something about a player’s competitiveness, too.

“You know, you poke the tiger enough,” Vrabel said, “eventually they’re going to bite back.”

Contact Joe Rexrode at jrexrode@tennessean.com and follow him on Twitter @joerexrode.