After calling the Tennessee Titans home for the past three seasons, linebacker Daren Bates is moving on and will play for the Houston Texans in 2020 after reportedly signing with the team following a successful tryout on Saturday.
Bates, who served as a special teams ace and a hype man of sorts in the locker room for Tennessee, took to social media to bid farewell to his former team.
Thank you @titans for a AMAZING 3 years ..met new people, teammates and coaches that became LIFERS (life long friends) and I’ll see all y’all WEEK 6 !! #EZZZ #HTown #Texans pic.twitter.com/7PJNtMvYtL
— Daren Bates (@DB_5trey) August 23, 2020
As Bates pointed out, it won’t be long until he sees his former mates, as the Titans will square off with the Texans for the first of two meetings in Week 6 at Nissan Stadium. Tennessee will then travel to Houston in Week 17.
Bates was originally signed as an undrafted free agent with the St. Louis (now Los Angeles) Rams in 2013, where he spent his first three seasons in the NFL. He played with the Oakland (now Las Vegas) Raiders in 2016.
In three seasons in Nashville, Bates established himself as a key special teams contributor. In 45 career games with the Titans, the Auburn product played just 51 snaps on defense, but over 1,000 on special teams.
It was apparent the Titans might be moving on from Bates earlier this offseason when they signed fellow inside linebacker and special teams ace, Nick Dzubnar, to a one-year deal.
