This is a weird story for the Tennessee Titans.
This has been a weird five weeks for the Tennessee Titans full of ups and downs.
On one hand, the team lost to the Buffalo Bills and Miami Dolphins, while sustaining a slew of injuries and can’t seem to get out of their own way whenever they are the verge of becoming respected.
Then on the other hand, the Titans are leading the AFC South and have wins over the reigning Super Bowl champs as well as Jacksonville and AFC South rival Houston Texans.
3-2 is always a good place to be at this point in the season, especially with a 2-0 divisional record. However, there are still question marks on this team.
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While the big question seems to be, “What are the Titans going to do about their bad depth at WR?” there is another question on my mind. That question is, “What is Rashaan Evans?”
I was among the people criticizing Evans during the Bills game because he really didn’t see to flow well to the ball and he just looked a step behind while he was processing. He is athletic enough and did well in college, so what is the issue?
Well, then after the game this tweet surfaced:
@PaulKuharskyNFL This is what I was trying to tag you in... He deleted the tweet.... pic.twitter.com/ERGckegSzx
— Mike Vrabel WANTS it to be 1980 (@CoachPlayBetter) October 7, 2018
The tweet in question is from Evans where he said:
"“ILB not even my primary position but keep the negative comments coming…I actually enjoy them!?"
The tweet has been deleted and this is the first picture I found of it, but what does it mean?
If you listen to the Titan Sized podcast then you have probably heard the theory I have had for a while on Evans as a prospect.
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At Alabama, Evans was used frequently as an EDGE especially early in his career. He has a fantastic spin move and he really knows how to beat offensive tackles, so much so that he tallied 15 sacks in his career.
That was most by any 1st round ILB in this year’s draft by a wide margin. His production combined with his sub 7 second three cone really stood out to me when looking at his draft profile.
So my thought was that the Titans were making a move to get a linebacker who could play inside on 1st and 2nd downs, and then move down to rush the passer from the outside in sub-packages.
Based on that tweet I would say that maybe that line of thinking is right. It is the only actual position that an ILB could cross train at. Looking deeper, maybe the Evans missing training camp meant that instead of really giving him reps at both, they were forced to teach him ILB to get him onto the field quickly.
Maybe long term they view him as someone they want in on 4-3 looks as well as run down ILB looks, but also as someone who lines up opposite Harold Landry on passing downs.
I think that after this game and the lack of impact that really any LB other than Jayon Brown has had, LB may still be an issue long term.
Maybe the Titans look at Evans as a utility player who can do a lot of things for them and be multiple, but due to the Woodyard injury and the lack of preseason practice he is being forced into a limited role?
I don’t know, but this is really interesting to track and maybe it means that we can hope for a more productive season from him going forward and after the Bye week.