ToryCarter

Oct 12

Spears led the backfield in snaps while catching nine passes for 28 yards.

Tony Pollard and Spears have been locked into the top two running back spots. As the season has progressed, Spears has started playing 100% of two-minute and third-down snaps, but his role on early downs has declined. Rookie Nicholas Singleton was slowly but surely getting involved on early downs, cutting into Spears' playing time. The Titans are one of the rare teams to roster five halfbacks, with Julius Chestnut and Michael Carter also on the team as backups. Despite this, Tennessee made Singleton and Carter healthy inactives, and called up Kalel Mullings from the practice squad to be its fourth running back. This left Spears as the clear early-down backup. He played 34. 9% of the early-down snaps, his highest rate since Week 1, and he reached over 50% of snaps for the first time this season. While Spears won’t have long-term value if he stays in this role, the Titans are now 0-5, and we are less than a month away from the trade deadline. It’s entirely possible that a team that needs a running back trades for Pollard. This could make Spears the lead running back over the rest of the season. While there is a chance Singleton could become the No. 1 back, that seems less probable now after he was inactive this week.

Aug 30

During the first week of the preseason, Singleton didn’t enter the game until late in the second quarter. He played into the third quarter, logging 16 snaps on first and second downs but only one on third down. Carter, meanwhile, played eight snaps on first and second downs and five on third down. Singleton missed last week due to injury but started this game. Tennessee used a similar rotation, with Carter consistently replacing Singleton on third downs. Nearly every team uses its running backs in a variety of situations during the preseason, regardless of down and distance. The fact that the Titans aren’t using Singleton on third downs even in the preseason strongly suggests they have no intention of giving him that role during the regular season. If Singleton starts seeing playing time this season, it would therefore be more likely to come at Pollard’s expense than Spears’, as Pollard tends to play more on early downs while Spears handles more third-down work.