Titans QB Mariota (elbow) limited in practice Thursday

One day after completing a full practice, Tennessee Titans quarterback Marcus Mariota received limited snaps on Thursday as backup Blaine Gabbert got the bulk of first-team reps.

One day after completing a full practice, Tennessee Titans quarterback Marcus Mariota received limited snaps on Thursday as backup Blaine Gabbert got the bulk of first-team reps.

Mariota, recovering from an elbow injury that forced him to leave Tennessee's season-opening loss at Miami last week, made it through a complete practice without issue on Wednesday, resulting in a thumbs up at the time from head coach Mike Vrabel.

Vrabel said of Mariota practicing Wednesday. "Barring any setbacks, Marcus is going to be good to go on Sunday."

Twenty-four hours later, Mariota's head coach sounded less certain about his starter's availability this Sunday when the Titans host the Houston Texans -- or at the very least, Vrabel was playing his comments much more cautiously.

"He's about the same, and so we felt like we needed to probably get Blaine (Gabbert) some reps just to be able to evaluate the quarterback situation as we got closer to the end of the week," Vrabel said of Mariota, according to the Titans' team website. "So that was why he was limited, just because he didn't get the normal reps that he would normally get.

"Just being able to evaluate which quarterback is going to be able to give us the best chance at the end of the week, especially on Sunday."

Despite the decrease in practice work Thursday, Vrabel explained that Mariota, who turns 25 next month, remains his expected starter this weekend.

"That could change," Vrabel said. "We'll see where things go here as we get closer to game day."

In the Titans' season debut, a 27-20 loss at Miami, Mariota finished 9 of 16 passing for 103 yards with no touchdown passes and two interceptions before getting injured. Gabbert was 11 of 22 through the air for 117 yards with one interception in relief.

In other injury news, two-time Pro Bowl left tackle Taylor Lewan did not attend practice for the second consecutive day while still under the NFL's concussion protocol. Right tackle Jack Conklin also sat out Thursday's workouts while still recovering from a torn ACL suffered in last year's playoffs. Conklin came off the team's physically unable to perform list at the end of the preseason but remains limited.