Chicago Bears: Comparing Roquan Smith to Rashaan Evans
The Chicago Bears drafted Roquan Smith in the first round. The Tennessee Titans drafted Rashaan Evans 14 picks later
The Chicago Bears drafted Roquan Smith eighth overall in what turned out to be a very strong linebacker class. Three other linebackers went in the first round, and Fred Warner and Darius Leonard have been the best two linebackers from that class.
However, Roquan Smith is coming into his own this season. Before the year, we compared all of the linebackers in the 2018 class and declared Smith as the third-best behind those two.
The Tennessee Titans drafted Rashaan Evans 22nd overall. An Alabama linebacker, Evans was compared to the Georgia linebacker heavily pre-draft. Now that they are set to square off on the field for the first time over three years later, how have they both turned out?
Raw Stats
Below you can see their raw stats from football reference. Overall Smith has missed some time, and has only been active for 36 games, compared to 38 for Evans. However, Smith has logged 2,231snaps and Evans has only played 1,955 snaps. Overall, their stats should be on the same playing field.
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Smith is outpacing Evans heavily here. He is more productive in solo tackles, sacks, tackles for loss, forced fumbles, and interceptions.
Run Defense
According to PFF, Rashaan Evans has played 782 run defense snaps. He has 85 run stops and 22 missed tackles. Surprisingly, Smith has exactly 782 run defense snaps as well. Smith has 117 run stops and 22 missed tackles in his career.
It is easy to see that they miss tackles at the same rate, but Smith is much more productive at making tackles that result in a loss, or a negative play.
Pass Rush
Evans has 265 snaps rushing the passer and has 31 pressures in total. Smith has 128 pass-rush snaps and 19 pressures. On a per snap basis Smith gets home 14% of the time compared to 11% of the time for Evans. Smith has more sacks which we noted earlier. Beyond that, Smith has three pressures this year to only two for Evans.
Coverage
Smith has been targeted 187 times in coverage to just 84 for Evans. However, when targeted, Smith has allowed an 87.5 passer rating, while Smith has allowed a 118.8 passer rating.
Smith has allowed 1 yard per coverage snap, while Evans allowed 1.04 yards per coverage snap. Beyond that, is yards after the catch. Smith allowed 5.84 yards after the catch per reception in his career, while Evans allowed 6.18. Smith allowed 4.31 yards after the catch per target, to 5 of Evans.
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Total
Overall, it is clear to see that the Chicago Bears did make the right call grading Roquan Smith better than Rashaan Evans. Evans has more pressures, but even in that area, Smith has more sacks on far fewer snaps. Smith has been better in coverage and better against the run.
After comparing Smith to Devin White and Rashaan Evans, it starting to become more apparent that Smith has been as good as the hype before the draft.