Since being hired in January, Spagnuolo has been grinding, as all teams do, with free agency and preparing for the draft.

New coaches, of course, have to hire a staff and try to evaluate the personnel on the roster. And, as Spagnuolo has consistently pointed out, you don't really know what you have until you see players in pads in training camp and preseason games.

Still, there are things to be learned from the offseason work, and Spagnuolo gathered his team beginning Thursday for a three-day minicamp. It's voluntary, but it's an extra camp allowed teams that have new head coaches.

"There will be a lot of fundamentals," Spagnuolo said. "It'll be very cut down, because what we really want to do is assess the talent. That's why we're doing it before the draft. We'd like to get a little bit of a feel for what we have going into the draft."

Asked some of the things that can be learned, Spagnuolo referred to subtle aspects that he will be watching.

He said, "You'll look to see which guys jump in front (of the lines), which guys are encouraging other people. When I'm sitting in the back of the meetings, I'm going to be looking for who's taking notes - actually sitting and writing notes. The best players that I've worked with are great note-takers.

"Because they've figured it out - that it's as much from the chin to the hairline as it is anything that they do with their body."

With all that, Spagnuolo reiterated how long it will be until he really knows what he has.

"I don't know that I'll feel like we have it completely evaluated until we get through the preseason games and then into a quarter of the season," he said. "That's a ways down the road."

After the first minicamp practice, Spagnuolo was pleased. "I'll tell you what the greatest indicator was," he said. "We were scheduled to get off (the field) at 12:20 and we got off about 12:16 or even earlier. So I told the guys that meant we were very efficient, which is good in the first practice."