There's a difference between being better and getting better.

Being is a result. Getting is a process. Being comes from getting. Getting is the work; being is the reward.

The Tennessee Titans need to be better. So first, they must get better.

"We can’t worry about winning before we worry about improving," Titans coach Mike Vrabel said Monday.

The Titans (3-7) aren't winning very much. They've lost three games in a row, five of their last six and 14 out of 17 dating back to last season. One day after the Jacksonville Jaguars pushed the Titans around in a 34-14 win, Vrabel said the Jaguars (7-3) are a better football team, and a better-coached team too.

It's a tough idea to stomach, but results don't lie. The Jaguars are in the hunt for the No. 1 seed in the AFC. The Titans are in the hunt for the No. 1 pick in the NFL draft.

So it's back to work for Vrabel and the Titans trying to make better happen.

"We trust them," Vrabel said. "Whether we make the play I don’t know. We have some mental errors. I think that we’re working at it. We’ll make sure that they understand the plan, give them an opportunity to go out there and have trust and confidence in what they’re doing and get a win."

Speaking developmentally

Development is what the Titans are looking for. And since this roster has no shortage of young players, it's easy to find the best candidates to develop.

Take the offensive line, for example. Rookie guard Peter Skoronski didn't allow a quarterback pressure in 20 pass block snaps Sunday, and rookie tackle Jaelyn Duncan didn't allow a pressure in 10 pass block snaps. Before Sunday, the Titans only had three instances all season of a player posting a clean sheet with 10 or more pass block snaps. Sunday they got two such performances, both from rookies, one from a player in Duncan who was thrust in off the bench by an injury to a teammate.

The Titans' offensive line wasn't necessarily better Sunday. Quarterback Will Levis was pressured on 40% of his dropbacks for the fourth-straight game and running backs Derrick Henry and Tyjae Spears had to gain 65% of their yardage after contact. But solid performances from young players constitute incremental improvements.

Add a whole bunch of those together and the team might actually be better.

Vrabel says players develop at different speeds. He brought up Duncan as a good example, especially since Chris Hubbard's injury is likely to mean more playing time for the sixth-round pick. But he also mentioned seventh-round receiver Colton Dowell's emergence as a special teams gunner and undrafted rookie T.K. McLendon getting opportunities on defense as evidence of young players figuring things out.

The Titans have played 13 rookies in 10 games, already the second-most the Titans have used in a full season in the Vrabel era. No AFC team has played more rookies than the Titans this fall. Across the entire NFL, only the Seattle Seahawks (10) have had more undrafted players make NFL debuts this season than the Titans (9).

There's more at play, though

It's natural that adjusting is going to take time for those guys. What's less natural is relying on veterans making repeated mistakes.

Vrabel didn't call any players out by name Monday, but he did make a few references to areas individual players need to address. He talked about players trying to do a better job of understanding details. He talked about players going the wrong direction. He brought up bad snaps and false starts and missed tackles and over-aggressive coverages. He even went as far as to compliment Amani Hooker, a safety, as one of the Titans' best options in man coverage as issues continue to pile up at cornerback.

"I have the luxury of having played this game in this league," Vrabel said. "I know what we’re coaching. I know what we’re teaching. I never blamed Dean Pees or Matt Patricia or Bill Belichick or Romeo Crennel or Rob Ryan if I couldn’t get to the passer or I missed a tackle or I went the wrong way."

Whether the blame belongs to the coaches or the players or any combination in between, the outcome is still the same. Jacksonville is still the better team, and the Titans still aspire to be that kind of better.

With a matchup against the team with the NFL's worst record, the Carolina Panthers (1-9), at Nissan Stadium on Sunday (noon, FOX), the Titans will have another chance to see if getting better can finally translate into being better.

Nick Suss is the Titans beat writer for The Tennessean. Contact Nick at nsuss@gannett.com. Follow Nick on X, the platform formerly called Twitter, @nickusss.

This article originally appeared on Nashville Tennessean: Mike Vrabel explains why he hasn't lost trust in Tennessee Titans