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.