Countdown to Kickoff: 84 Days

Linebacker Rashaan Evans had 84 solo stops as part of team-leading 139 tackles in 2019.

The countdown to kickoff continues.

The Tennessee Titans will open the 2020 regular season Sept. 14 at Denver. That is 84 days away. So, today we look at one way the number 84 figures into the team’s history.

Rashaan Evans did not always get to the ball carrier first last fall. The second-year linebacker got there more often than any of his Tennessee Titans teammates, though.

Evans finished 2019 as the team leader with 139 tackles – 84 of them were solo stops.

What is most notable about that number is that one of his teammates actually had more. Jayon Brown, the other starter at inside linebacker, had 89 solo stops but finished third overall with 117 tackles. It was the first time since 2014 – the first year the Titans used a 3-4 base defense – that their leading tackler was not also their leader in solo stops.

It was 55 assisted tackles that put the 2018 first-round pick (22nd overall) over the top and which spoke to the relentless nature of his play in his first full season as a starter.

In the last 15 seasons, only Wesley Woodyard (2014, 2017) and Avery Williamson (2105, 2106) led the defense in tackles with more assisted stops. Woodyard (2017) was the only other one in the last 10 years with more than 80 solo tackles and more than 50 assists.

“For me, right now I’m still pursuing the journey of trying to be a guy that guys can count on,” Evans said recently. “Be a guy that when a play needs to be made, they’re looking for me or if they’re looking for some type of person, at least be vocal in a situation like that.

“… By me having that first experience being [a full-time player] in the NFL and having that opportunity to get to that last game [the Super Bowl], I think it definitely gave me even a bigger motivation because I know how to get there now.”