The Bills released running back Darrynton Evans on Tuesday, the team announced.
Evans was designated to return from injured reserve Oct. 9 and had spent the past three weeks practicing. With Evans’ 21-day practice window closing, the Bills had to make a move or he would have finished the season on injured reserve.
This allows them to re-sign him to the practice squad if he doesn’t go elsewhere.
Evans, a third-round pick of the Titans in 2020, initially joined the Bills in 2023. Buffalo cut him out of the preseason, and Evans spent time on the Dolphins’ practice squad and the Bears’ active roster last season.
He signed a futures contract with the Bills after last season.
Evans has not played a game in 2024.
The Titans announced a pair of roster moves on Monday afternoon.
Linebacker Cedric Gray has been activated from injured reserve and defensive lineman Abdullah Anderson was released to create space for him on the 53-man roster.
Gray was a fourth-round pick this year and he has been sidelined with a shoulder injury since August, so he has yet to make his regular season debut. Gray, who has been practicing for the last few weeks, had 121 tackles during his final season at North Carolina.
Anderson played 38 defensive snaps in four games this season. He had 54 tackles, 2.5 sacks, a pass defensed, and a fumble recovery in 33 games with the Bears, Vikings, Packers, Falcons, and Commanders.
The Titans raised some eyebrows when they fired Mike Vrabel as their head coach after the 2023 season and the first months of Brian Callahan’s tenure have not gone as hoped.
Sunday’s 52-14 loss to the Lions dropped the Titans to 1-6 and it featured sloppy play across all three phases of the game. It came a week after the Titans got blown out by the Bills, so the performances have been getting worse in Tennessee.
On Monday, Callahan’s press conference featured several questions about the level of belief in the direction of the franchise. Callahan said he’s not “dissuaded from what I think we’re capable of being” by the run of bad results and said the reason for that is because “the definition of faith and trust is believing in something you don’t have any proof of at the moment.”
“Our record is what it is,” Callahan said. “It’s not indicative to me of what I think we’re capable of. That’s the first thing. The second thing, I don’t — my vision and my belief and what we’re going to do and how we’re doing it. Haven’t had the results to show for it yet and that’s disappointing. I was hopeful, I was anticipating better than where we’re at right now. That’s just the reality, but we’re not there. . . . We should be better. We need to be better. I know where we’re headed, I believe in it very much.”
Callahan said he’s had good communication with owner Amy Adams Strunk and feels that she shares his belief in the team’s future, but noted that “none of us are that patient” in the NFL. That means some tangible signs of growth would be a good thing for Callahan and the Titans in the weeks to come.
Titans quarterback Will Levis is getting closer to returning from his shoulder injury — and there’s a chance it could happen this week.
“We’ll see where he’s at. I’m optimistic he’s in a better place after some rest,” head coach Brian Callahan said in his Monday press conference. “He’s probably going to take another day or two of some rest and we’ll see what he looks like Wednesday. So, I can’t comment with any certainty what’ll be the case.
“But, I’m hopeful that he’s closer to feeling like 100 percent — or as close to that as he can — so he can go out and play.”
In his second season, Levis has missed Tennessee’s last two games. He suffered the shoulder injury against Miami in Week 4, before playing through it in the Week 6 loss to Indianapolis. Mason Rudolph has started Tennessee’s last two games.
In his five starts this season, Levis has completed 66.4 percent of his throws for 699 yards with five touchdowns and seven interceptions.
Rudolph has completed 58.9 percent of his passes for 566 yards with two touchdowns and three picks.
The Patriots pulled out a 25-22 win over the Jets with a late touchdown drive that was led by quarterback Jacoby Brissett.
Brissett was in the game because Drake Maye was pulled in the first half in order to undergo a concussion evaluation and he was ruled out of the game at halftime. Maye had run for a touchdown in the first quarter and appeared to suffer the injury on a hit during another run, but he remained in the game for a few plays before the evaluation process began.
On Monday, Patriots head coach Jerod Mayo said he was caught off guard when trainer Jim Whalen informed him of Maye’s status because he did not see any sign that the quarterback was struggling.
“I did not,” Mayo said, via a transcript from the team. “I was surprised when Whalen told me he had to go to the medical tent because he threw a couple of good balls afterward, and I thought he was still pretty sharp in those regards. But obviously, it’s above my pay grade as far as pulling him out of the game and putting him in the protocol.”
Maye will need to clear the concussion protocol before he’ll be able to return and that process will be something to watch as they head toward their Week Nine date with the Titans.
