Going into this season, Brad Evans seemed to have the inside track on the starting right back job. After all, Tyrone Mears had been effectively traded to Atlanta United and Evans was highly thought of enough that he had been invited to the United States national team training camp.
But after a season in which he battled injuries down the stretch -- keeping him from starting any games after Aug. 26, 2016 — Evans picked up another knock in USMNT camp. That kept him out of all of the Sounders’ preseason training and he was eventually declared out for 5-7 weeks with what the team was calling a calf strain.