Chris Matthews to active roster

[AgentDib]

Don't get me wrong, I would love for Matthews to contribute in a huge way. He's still the same guy that lost the job to all those pedestrian receivers you guys are lamenting about and has yet to show anything against NFL level talent.

Willson has had trouble catching passes in traffic. He appears to be 'worried' about getting hit. In the open field he's fine. Until and unless he demonstrates consistency catching in traffic, people "on a message board" are going to continue to comment about it.

Of course it isn't mutually exclusive. We can hope that Willson continues to progress at the same time as Chris Matthews suddenly becomes an NFL red zone target. One is just more likely than the other, and the talking point on these forums about getting a "big wide receiver" overlooks the fact that MANY of the good offenses in this league get it done in the red zone with a TE or two.

So Matthews is roughly the same speed as Willson (Willson looks a little quicker Matthews is more of a long strider for running in a straight line I think), and they are both 6'5'', but I'm pretty sure Matthews has much longer arms.

A source on that would be nice. Willson is bigger, faster, stronger and more athletic according to all publicly available measurables. Willson hasn't been flawless, but wanting to see a completely unproven guy in there just because you haven't seen him make a mistake yet is the sort of fan behavior that had everybody on the clipboard jesus bandwagon.

 

[LOB4UandME]

Willson is roughly the same size, but TE's and WR's are vastly different in how they run routes and shield the db with their frame. Jimmy Graham is so good for NO because he really is a WR playing tight end. His routes are, especially in the RZ run like a WR. Willson runs TE routes. Have they ever thrown him a "jump ball"? No. Because he doesn't run routes like that. Back shoulder routes, no, because he doesn't run routes like a WR, but Graham and other TE's of his type get lots of those types of routes. It's like comparing Zach Miller to Jimmy Graham. Both have TE next to their name in the box score but are not even close to the same type of player, despite both being hugely valuable to their respective teams.

 

[JesterHawk]

Inactives list just came across the wire. Matthews isn't on it. Will be interesting to see how they use him.

 

[DavidSeven]

Matthews active over Walters. Color me surprised.

 

[CalgaryHawk]

To me it suggests that no one better became available between Wednesday and Friday. Chip Kelly ain't changing his game plan for freakin' Chris Matthews. I'd be surprised if he was active tomorrow.

Incorrect.