Summer Sleeper: Darren Evans

Ken Kelly

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we continue our Summer Sleeper series to today with Darren Evans of the Indianapolis Colts and it begins with an apology.

Say what?

That’s right. We owe the DLF faithful a bit of an apology this morning. You see, we’ve been watching Evans for a few weeks, but just hadn’t had the chance to finish this post.  In fact, we felt collectively that we wanted to focus on other sleepers once Joseph Addai was brought back into the fold in Indy. I actually dropped Evans in the original DLF league founded by our group here eight years ago.

We were wrong to hesitate in bringing you the information and hope it’s not too late.

Evans is no scrub trying to make a team. Many of you might remember him from his days at Virginia Tech where he set a Freshman record with 1,265 yards and 11 touchdowns. He was completely off the radar after a torn ACL wiped out his 2009 season. Evans returned last year and it was he (not Ryan Williams of the Cardinals) who led the Hokies in rushing with 854 yards on a 5.7 yards per carry average.

Evans went undrafted and I for one was thrilled to see him sign with the Colts once the lockout was over. I was equally dismayed when they signed Chad Spann off the street. I was devastated when they brought back Joseph Addai, making the chances of Evans making this team go from slim to none.

Then came Saturday.

Evans’ debut with the Colts was great. He had 52 yards on eight carries. The aftermath this morning is what’s really been noteworthy. The Indianapolis papers are stating that Evans is “giving the team something to talk about” and Colts owner Jim Irsay tweeted this morning that Evans is going to be pushing Delone Carter for short yardage duties. He also mentioned they keep the best players, regardless of draft position.

Not bad after one showing.

Perspective needs to be used with Evans. It’s one preseason game and many of his yards came against the second and third teams. However, Evans does have talent and would have been a high pick in the draft if not for his injury history.

This is the time to grab players who at least have a chance. Evans has Addai, Brown and Carter ahead of him at the very least, but he’s making up ground quickly.

Again, he has a chance.

ken kelly