Should Chicago Bears be interested in Darrynton Evans returning?

The Chicago Bears are still in the building phase of the rebuild so it means that a lot of the pieces you saw on the 2022 roster are unlikely to be around when the team takes the field for 2023. They have a long list of current free agents, and one of them is Darrynton Evans.

Evans was claimed off of waivers when the Tennessee Titans released him. Because he was a former third-round pick, and he was claimed, he will be a free agent, but he is a restricted free agent. This means the Bears could put a tender on him, that forces another team to trade an asset to sign him. It also means that any offer Evans gets has the chance to be matched by Chicago.

In almost any case, they will not tender him. So, it is still not a lock that he will be back with the Chicago Bears next season. The reality is that he looked better than Trestan Ebner when he got on the field. The issue is that Ebner was on the field much more often than Evans.

At first, the upside in the preseason had them wanting to see what Ebner had. During the middle of the year, Evans was better. By the end of the year, the meaningless games had them wanting to see Ebner again.

So, there are two ways to look at this. One, they are moving on from Evans. He did not stick, they are much more interested in Ebner, and even at RFA status, if any team offers a decent salary, the Chicago Bears will not re-sign.

The other idea is that they know what they have in him and do not know about Ebner. They gave Ebner every chance to stick around, but now they may know that they should keep Evans. Still, as an RFA, who barely played last season they also know he will have little to no value. They can let him test the market but can match any flimsy offer.

Teams also may know this and realize it is better to just find a different running back than to put together a deal that Chicago will almost definitely match. It is not like a team plans to come in here and blow Evans and his agent away with an offer.

So, in all likelihood, the Chicago Bears hiding him hurt his value, and made it much more likely that no team offers Evans a deal, or at least not a deal that Chicago would have to debate over. He is expected to return to the team due to his contract status.