Tennessee Titans fans should see more of Darrynton Evans in 2021

Well, it wasn’t exactly what you would call ‘taking the NFL by storm’. That’s for sure. Second-year Tennessee Titans running back Darrynton Evans was on the field for 33 offensive snaps and another 34 on special teams during 2020’s regular season. For you math experts, that equates to three percent and eight percent of the team’s total number of snaps in each category.

How can this be put nicely? That isn’t really what you’re looking for when your team has a workhorse back, Derrick Henry, that ran for over 2,000 yards in his fifth season and has carried the ball more than 300 times in each of the past two seasons.

As fans, as members of the media, and as coaches, the desire is that one of your other tailbacks can spell your team MVP so that he’s fresh, not only during the latter portion of the 2021-2022 season and the postseason but for years to come.

Tennessee Titans head coach Mike Vrabel offers some insight.

Following the May 27th session of OTA practices, Mike Vrabel took about 20 minutes to hang out with the media. Among the topics were potential changes to the OTA schedule, players making the best decisions for themselves personally as far as managing workload, and, of course, last season’s rookies taking the next step in 2020.

That brings us back to Evans, who’s someone that can be lined up all over the field. Vrabel expressed that he didn’t know where he’d line up as of now (he’s also said he’s confident with the group of receivers that he has), but Evans could be someone that Tennessee uses as their version of some sort of offensive Swiss-army knife. Here’s some of what the coach had to say on the subject.

"Darrynton’s been a versatile player. I know he’s dealt with some injuries in his first year. I would say that he’s a player that we’re excited about, and he has some versatility. He worked (at the slot position) today. Those are ideas that we have to try and get him some cross-training work. A lot of those players that can handle more than one particular role, we’ll continue to add (to their workload), and I believe Darrynton will be one of those players."

Here are a few more things for Tennessee Titans fans to think about.

Evans is a five-foot-ten, 203-pound tailback who cut his teeth at the collegiate level for the Appalachian State Mountaineers. In 39 career games there, he amassed 482 totes, including 255 in 2019. The results were a six yards-per-carry average, 2884 yards, and 25 trips to the end zone.

He’s been lining up at one of the wide receiver spots from time to time during practice, getting a little “cross-training” as Coach put it. Just in case you’re curious, he hauled in 39 passes for 319 yards and six touchdowns from 2016 to 2019 while playing his college ball in Boone, North Carolina.

14 carries. 54 rushing yards, two first downs, two catches for 27 yards, a receiving touchdown, a nine kick returns for 206 yards were the results of year one in a Titans jersey. Expect a few more highlights in year two.