Evans Goes Old School To Build His Reputation

Titans linebacker trains in his garage this offseason as he sets his sights on Pro Bowl, All-Pro honors.

For Rashaan Evans, this offseason has been like something out of Rocky IV – minus the Russian winter.

Due to restrictions created by the coronavirus pandemic, the Tennessee Titans linebacker went back to basics in an attempt to become a better version of himself.

“Really just doing some of the old things that I would do back in high school, whether or not I had to go back in the garage and get a couple weights from the facility and bring them over and do some workouts in the garage,” Evans said recently. “To be honest with you, I enjoyed that even more than sometimes working out of the organized facility.

“I think just that itself kind of builds character. I think it builds even that much more of a chip on your shoulder because you kind of go back to how you started.”

Unlike the fictional boxing champion who needed to return to – or exceed – his peak conditioning in order to face Ivan Drago, Evans is still on his way up.

The 2018 first-round draft pick (22nd overall) has been in the NFL for just two seasons and has been a full-time starter for one – at a position he did not play in college. Evans is an inside linebacker for Tennessee after having played on the outside (and even a bit on the line of scrimmage) during his four seasons at Alabama.

He led the Titans in 2019 with 139 tackles and his 11 tackles-for-loss were more than twice as many as any of his teammates. He also recovered a fumble, which he returned 53 yards for a touchdown against Kansas City.

“(Evans) can cover a lot of ground,” inside linebackers coach Jim Haslett said. “He’s strong. He’s got power in his play and he plays hard. He plays like his hair is on fire.”

And he has no plans to burn out.

Since Tennessee switched to a 3-4 base defense in 2014 under then-coach Ken Whisenunt, none of the team’s inside linebackers have earned a Pro Bowl invitation. The only outside linebacker to get there was Brian Orakpo in 2016. Beyond that, Keith Bulluck in 2003 is the only other Titans linebacker since 1999 to make it to the annual all-star affair.

Evans intends to change all of that.

“No doubt. I just feel like for any player including myself, just having your own personal goals I feel like it just helps the team collectively because if every person is striving for their own individual goals, it just makes everybody else good,” he said. “For me personally, those accolades that you just mentioned, All-Pro, Pro Bowl, being the leading tackler, all those other things are definitely something I definitely strive for, to just be the best at the things that I do.”

The best way for him to take that step, he figures, was to step back in time in terms of his training.

“You kind of go back to not having a lot of things that you would have now, and being able to use those things that you have to maximize and to do as much as you can to get that same type of workout as you would with an organized facility,” Evans said. “I think that’s the cool thing about it, just with those little things.

“… Any situation that you get put in in the NFL is something that you can’t train for, it’s something that just happens out of the blue, but being able to adapt, being able to do it on the run, I think that’s the main thing that I’ve been really proud of myself for.”