A Ram Castoff Gets Last Laugh With the Steelers

Donald Evans never made it as a No. 1 draft choice with the Rams and has been kicking around pro football ever since. But he persisted, and when he returns to Southern California Sunday, it will be as a starter for the Pittsburgh Steelers.

The Rams’ top draft pick in 1987--he was picked in the second round because the club had no first-round choice that year--Evans lasted one season before he was cut.

Drafted as a defensive end out of little-known Winston-Salem State to revive the Rams’ feeble pass rush, Evans was named a starter by Coach John Robinson before signing a contract.

But after missing most of training camp because of a contract dispute, Evans came in far behind schedule, then was put on the injured-reserve list because of an abdominal injury.

When he was reactivated, Evans, 6-feet-2 and 265 pounds, was told to lose 30 pounds because he was being shifted to fullback, the position he had played in his first three seasons in college. With the Rams, Evans rushed for 10 yards in three carries.

Then in 1988, the Rams drafted running backs Gaston Green and Robert Delpino, and Evans was waived in the last cut before the start of the regular season.

He was picked up by the Philadelphia Eagles and played defensive end in the nickel defense and on the special teams for five games before suffering a broken jaw and being sidelined for the rest of the season.

A Plan B free agent in 1989, Evans re-signed with the Eagles, who promised him a raise. But they cut him during training camp, and he was out of football for a year, working as a supervisor for a trucking company in Kernersville, N.C., his hometown.

“I thought I’d like to give it another shot,” he said.

He signed as a defensive end with the Steelers last April and since has flourished. So has the Steeler defense. When the Pittsburgh defense takes the field against the Raiders at the Coliseum Sunday, it will be as the No. 2 defense in the AFC.

So how does Robinson feel about Evans now?

“We all have failures, all of us,” he said. “Players constantly rotate from one team to another to find a place to establish themselves.

“He keeps trying. He’s a pretty tenacious guy. When he was with us, he didn’t have the skills necessary to play, but over a period of time he developed some. That’s great.”

Does Evans think the Rams gave him a fair shot?

“Hey, I was their No. 1 pick. I don’t have any resentment against that,” Evans said. “Things just didn’t work out.

“When I was out there with the Rams, they needed a pass rusher now. I had only played 10 games at defensive end until I got drafted by the Rams. I didn’t really have that much experience as a defensive lineman.

“Plus, coming from a small school, the competition level wasn’t as high. It was a big jump coming from a small school to a pro team. I’d go up against the Ram offensive line, and most of them were all-pros.”

Evans also said he never had time to concentrate on one position.

“During practice I was working out as a defensive lineman plus running back, and I was doing much better at running back,” he said. “The Rams were a good team, but they were under a lot of pressure. I had to produce and I just didn’t.”

But Evans is producing for the Steelers, who are so high on him that they traded Tim Johnson, a starting defensive end the last two seasons, to the Washington Redskins.

Evans has one sack for 10 yards and has made five tackles for a Steeler defense that, with 11 sacks for 68 yards, has evoked memories of the old Steel Curtain.

Pittsburgh sacked Cleveland’s Bernie Kosar seven times in the season opener. The Steelers then sacked Houston’s Warren Moon four times last week.

Besides having a new job, Evans also has a new look.

With his head shaved and his chin bearded, Evans looks as intimidating as former Raider Otis Sistrunk.

But Evans said he didn’t get a make-over to look intimidating.

“It was by mistake,” Evans said. “My wife was cutting my hair and she went down too deep, and I told her to go ahead and cut it all off. Then, a lot of my friends said it looked kind of nice, so I’ve had it cut off ever since.”

After being released by the Eagles, Evans said he considered offers from Atlanta and Detroit, teams that wanted to sign him as a running back. But he signed with the Steelers because he was assured that he could play defensive end.

“We felt that the key to recruiting him was convincing him that we wouldn’t bounce him around,” said Tom Donahoe, Steeler director of pro personnel and development. “He’s done extremely well, if you consider that this is the first time in his entire career that he’s spent an extended period of time at the same position.”

A longshot to make the team, Evans got more practice time with the first-team defense that he normally would have during training camp because rookie Craig Veasey and Johnson held out, and Aaron Jones, the club’s No. 1 pick two years ago, and rookie Kenny Davidson, their No. 2 pick this year, were injured.

“It was an uphill struggle, but each week I got better and better,” Evans said.

Joe Greene, the Steeler Hall of Famer who coaches the defensive line, has made Evans his project.

“He’s a very intelligent man who knows the game and has been real patient with me,” Evans said. “He knows everything about the position. When Joe Greene talks, you listen.”

Greene is impressed by Evans.

“He’s been waived twice, and he probably feels that this may be his last opportunity,” Greene said. “People keep asking, ‘How can this guy make our team and he wasn’t able to make the other teams?’ You give him something to do and allow him to focus on it.

“Maybe he would have made it at any of the other positions, given the proper amount of time and concentrated effort on that particular position, because one thing he does is study.

“Donald is in here sometimes too much. He’s in this office watching film when I’ve got to watch it.”