Akayleb Evans is Seizing His Opportunity
K. Joudry
|
We ought to have known that the Vikings have a high opinion of Akayleb Evans. After all, they traded up in the draft to pick the young corner. Minnesota didn’t have a pick in the 4th round, so they sent a 5th and next year’s 4th to the Browns to hop up to 118.
Coming into the season, he was even 4th overall among corners on the team’s depth chart. That’s ahead of veteran Kris Boyd and 2nd-round selection Andrew Booth Jr.
There are a couple positions where defensive coaches often place a particular emphasis on players who are long and strong. Edge rusher is perhaps the first one to come to mind. One also thinks of the corner position.
Akayleb Evans has the height – he’s 6’2″ – that coaches like at corner. The theory is that being so tall can allow the corner to matchup with the league’s tall, strong receivers – think of someone like Mike Evans, Mike Williams, and/or Julio Jones. For whatever it’s worth, Minnesota’s top 3 outside corners – Akayleb Evans, Cameron Dantzler Sr., and Patrick Peterson – are either 6’1″ or 6’2″.
Dantzler had to miss some time during the Packers game. Evans was the player who came off the bench. In the end, he only played 6 snaps on defense (and 10 on special teams). He had 1 tackle. More encouraging, though, was the mere fact that he has earned enough trust to get onto the field at such an early stage in his career.
Now, am I trying to suggest that Akayleb Evans has fully arrived, that he can’t make any more progress? By no means. He’s a rookie with only a handful of snaps. There are plenty of things he can improve on. His PFF grade – though in very limited snaps – was a modest 39.2. The coverage component came in at 47.4, suggesting he lost some reps.
Nevertheless, the positivity rests in the basic fact that a fourth-round rookie has already shown the coaching staff enough to get onto the field in Week 1.
Coming into the draft, there was a sense that Evans could do well if he was in the right scheme in the NFL: “Depending on how he tests, Evans should profile as a height, weight, speed prospect for teams employing multiple zone coverages. He lacks the footwork and short-area agility to maintain man coverage against NFL receivers. Evans has the strength for release redirection and can use his length to swarm the catch from a side shuffle or short zone setting. The measurables are appealing but his injury history must be part of his evaluation as well.”
Moving forward, Evans will continue to be an important contributor on special teams. Evans may also get more opportunity on defense.
The Vikings’ next game will take place this Monday night against Philadelphia.
Purple PTSD: Camryn Bynum Has a Great Opportunity
[brid autoplay=”true” video=”1096821″ player=”26281″ title=”WATCH%20Buffalo%20Bills%20blowout%20Los%20Angeles%20Rams%20%206%20biggest%20winners%20and%20losers” duration=”135″ description=”The Buffalo Bills were on a completely different level taking out the defending champion Los Angeles Rams to open the 2022 NFL season Thursday night.With the game tied at 10 heading into the third quarter, Buffalo scored three unanswered touchdowns in the second half. All three scores came via NFL MVP candidate Josh Allen. Meanwhile, Rams quarterback Matthew Stafford was sacked seven times while throwing three interceptions in the blowout 31-10 loss.In a game that saw Los Angeles overmatched at home, one of its former players made a major statement, too. Below, we provide you with the six biggest winners and losers from Buffalo’s statement victory.” uploaddate=”2022-09-13″ thumbnailurl=”https://cdn.brid.tv/live/partners/17660/snapshot/1096676_sd_1663090872.jpg” contentUrl=”https://cdn.brid.tv/live/partners/17660/streaming/1096676/1096676.m3u8″ width=”16″ height=”9″]