Titans free agent spotlight: LB Rashaan Evans

Welcome to Music City Miracles’ Tennessee Titans 2022 NFL Free Agency Primer! Free agency is set to begin on March 16th, but the Titans are able to re-sign their own free agents before then. General manager Jon Robinson will be hard at work as the 2022 iteration of the Titans will begin to take shape over the next few weeks. March 8th represents the deadline for clubs to designate Franchise or Transition Players.

The Titans currently possess 28 free agents, including several key starters and role players. Over the next few weeks, we’ll take an in-depth look at each free agent and provide arguments for why the Titans should, or shouldn’t re-sign that player. We’ll also offer our final verdict and a prediction to go along with our analysis.

Today, we’re looking at a former first-round selection.

Name: Rashaan Evans

Position: Inside Linebacker

Current Age: 26

Why the Titans should keep Evans: General manager Jon Robinson traded up in the 2018 NFL Draft in order to select Evans from Alabama, who almost immediately became an instant contributor. Evans has maintained a starting role throughout the majority of his career as a Titan. He’s an expert goal line defender that has made several big plays. An old-school downhill thumper, Evans shines as gap-attacking defender and tackler in the run game. Evans is a tackling machine. He shouldn’t be that expensive to keep, either given that his 2020 and 2021 campaigns didn’t exactly go to plan.

Why the Titans should let Evans walk: Evans clearly lost favor with Tennessee’s coaching staff and did not play a sizable role at inside linebacker down the stretch. The midseason acquisition of Zach Cunningham made Evans more than expendable. Evans hit a new low-point when he was a healthy scratch for Tennessee’s divisional round playoff loss. Evans is a two-down player that can’t play in coverage, which makes him a weakness in today’s pass-happy league. He’s consistently trended in the wrong direction over the past few seasons.

Final verdict: I can’t imagine Evans has any interest in returning to Nashville in 2022, and that sentiment is probably mutual. He was downright benched down the stretch and will surely search for more opportunity and money elsewhere. Cunningham and David Long Jr. are the starters going forward. The Titans don’t even need the depth since they selected Monty Rice in the third-round of the 2021 draft.

Prediction: Evans plays elsewhere in 2022.

What are your thoughts? Should the Titans re-sign Evans? Leave your opinion in the comments.