The Tennessee Titans are going to have to be creative this weekend.
In about 48 hours the Tennessee Titans are going to take the field in a crucial matchup against the Washington Redskins.
Common sense says that even though you need to win this game to get into the playoffs, the biggest challenge left on your schedule is Week 17. So, with that I always expected Tennessee to be a little cautious with the injuries.
As expected, Sharif Finch and Brian Orakpo have both been declared OUT for the Titans game on Saturday against Washington.
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That means that going into this game the Titans EDGE depth will be three players deep:
-Harold Landry
-Derrick Morgan
-Kamalei Correa
It really helps that Morgan is coming off of his best game of the season and that Landry and Correa have both flashed frequently this year. But the numbers are going to hurt the Titans in the sense that you don’t want guys getting a ton of snaps so late in the season.
I don’t think the Titans will bring up any practice squad players, so the best option they have is to use Rashaan Evans more at EDGE, which has already been brought up:
Vrabel: Rashaan Evans can help out if needed at OLB this week.
— John Glennon (@glennonsports) December 20, 2018
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This may seem out of left field if you haven’t listened to the Titan Sized Podcast or if you are unfamiliar with Rashaan’s history, but this is something I have talked about for a long time.
Just a quick run down, Evans was ranked the top outside linebacker out of high school in 2014 according to 247 Sports in large part because of his ability to get to the quarterback. During his senior year in high school he ended up with 43 TFLs and 17.5 sacks.
He went on to Alabama where he played a lot of special teams early, but also earned a job as a rotational pass rusher during his sophomore season. He ended his career with 15 career sacks and 23.5 TFLs despite only starting in his last season.
As a pass rusher he dominated with his quick get off and his spin move, which was the better than any other player’s in the 2018 NFL Draft.
So, expecting him to be an above average pass rusher is a fair assumption.
The way I think the Titans are going to have to balance this out is by giving Wesley Woodyard and Jayon Brown the bulk of the snaps in the base defense with Evans being used a little less at linebacker and a little more at EDGE.
If Evans ends the game with 30 snaps at LB and 12 at EDGE, I think that would be the ideal gameplan and it should allow everyone to get plenty of rest without risk of overexertion with a matchup against the Indianapolis Colts looming.