Is Chris Matthews the Real Deal?

Whats the word? From the little we have seen from him, Is he one of those rag to riches story who will become a pro bowler in the making?

At the very least how does he compare to our usual cast of Doug, Prich, Kearse, and Lockette?

The reality is nobody knows but if imagine he will certainly have the option to prove himself in training camp and hopefully turn into a real threat on the field.

I think having one good game in the Super Bowl isn't enough, guys can have one off good games however Id certainly love to see him develop into pro bowl calibre!

original poster":3ijb87zp said:

The reality is nobody knows but if imagine he will certainly have the option to prove himself in training camp and hopefully turn into a real threat on the field.

I think having one good game in the Super Bowl isn't enough, guys can have one off good games however Id certainly love to see him develop into pro bowl calibre!

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QFT. Sure, I liked what I saw there. But half of that is probably that the Patsies had no film on him. He'll have work to do this off season and season to prove himself. Like any new player, we'll have to see how he responds after the rest of the league gets some game film on him. (Does anybody really use "film" any more? :laugh: )

95% chance he is not.

No one knows for sure as most mention here that he could have one good game and be a non factor after they gets some film on him. I'm in the positive about him just cause he reached out to Graham and I would love to see them both lineup on the outside. Those are some big targets for Wilson who both looks like they have pretty good hands when the ball is thrown their way.

I'm going with no.

The big mismatch WR has been a role Seattle has tried to fill repeatedly. I think if Pete had any faith in CM, we'd have seen him on the field. Certainly before injuries thinned the WR corps.

Seattle was so interested in having that big receiver mismatch, that despite having CM, they traded their first round pick and their best offensive lineman to get it. I don't see them making that move if they felt like CM was even going to be in the mix next year.

The evidence (Pete's reluctance to play and the price we paid to get what CM might provide us) tells me he's not the real deal.

Attyla the Hawk":19oeas27 said:

I'm going with no.

The big mismatch WR has been a role Seattle has tried to fill repeatedly. I think if Pete had any faith in CM, we'd have seen him on the field. Certainly before injuries thinned the WR corps.

Seattle was so interested in having that big receiver mismatch, that despite having CM, they traded their first round pick and their best offensive lineman to get it. I don't see them making that move if they felt like CM was even going to be in the mix next year.

The evidence (Pete's reluctance to play and the price we paid to get what CM might provide us) tells me he's not the real deal.

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Equally, though, having a dual mismatched threat could be his plan as well!

There's just no knowing until next season, one things for sure, it's going to be great to watch!

Attyla the Hawk":1apftbbt said:

I'm going with no.

The big mismatch WR has been a role Seattle has tried to fill repeatedly. I think if Pete had any faith in CM, we'd have seen him on the field. Certainly before injuries thinned the WR corps.

Seattle was so interested in having that big receiver mismatch, that despite having CM, they traded their first round pick and their best offensive lineman to get it. I don't see them making that move if they felt like CM was even going to be in the mix next year.

The evidence (Pete's reluctance to play and the price we paid to get what CM might provide us) tells me he's not the real deal.

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seriously? we do not trade for one of the best TEs in the last 20 years if CM was considered ok? come on man.

John Schneider said they were going to get a TE no matter what happened during the Superbowl. It was already one of their plans.

Would be nice if he can have a Big Mike Williams-type of season. The guy made some damn good catches

IMHO, Matthews and Graham are two entirely unrelated items, so I don't see where signing Graham has anything to do with CM being the "real deal." I'm not going to say CM is a pro-bowler, but I'm also far from writing the kid off. If Pete thought he was done, he'd be gone. He's still on the roster, so I'll take that to mean that he is developing in a way that Pete thinks he might be useful in the future. Hell, I don't even know if he'll survive training camp, but there is a good bet he'll be there working to win a roster spot. That's about all anybody can say right now.

I think solid starter, but probably not pro bowl.

He is tall at six five, but not big at that height, only 218. Browner slowed him way down by pressing him at the los, but did not stop him. He can become stronger to beat the press.

I think he has already proved himself in the last training camp, practice squad, and practices.

He can dominate short defenses today, and tall defensive backs are rare.

Jimmy Graham just made Matthews even more valuable because JG almost demands the attention of the tallest defenders, thus rendering Mathews even more dominating.

I think the combination of this two will greatly increase our offense. Only Bevell, and a weak line can stop this.

Pete is responsible for fixing, or at the very least controlling, both problems.

*of these two

Attyla the Hawk":31ehumr0 said:

I'm going with no.

The big mismatch WR has been a role Seattle has tried to fill repeatedly. I think if Pete had any faith in CM, we'd have seen him on the field. Certainly before injuries thinned the WR corps.

Seattle was so interested in having that big receiver mismatch, that despite having CM, they traded their first round pick and their best offensive lineman to get it. I don't see them making that move if they felt like CM was even going to be in the mix next year.

The evidence (Pete's reluctance to play and the price we paid to get what CM might provide us) tells me he's not the real deal.

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Best offensive lineman? Ya right.

Any receiver that's the proverbial "real deal" would've burned Brandon Browner all day long, not gotten shut down by him.

I think he had an enormous size matchup advantage in a game where our primary WRs were covered by Revis and Browner. That's just not going to happen again almost ever. It was a nice performance, but it would be a fool's errand to project from it.

I do think there were two good things to take away from it. One, Matthews can step up on the big stage and won't choke. Two, our passing offense is getting better at exploiting matchups.

We can recreate the enormous size matchup on EVERY play simply by playing both JG with CM on the same down.

Great height is rare for wide receivers, and much rarer for defensive backs.

What am I missing here.

It was the physicality of Browner that got Matthews stuck. Jam him at the line enough and Browner was able to shut him down since he's tall as well. There's not many DB's in this league that are that tall or physical as Browner. What I liked about Matthews was the way he adjusted to the ball, he's really fluid for a tall guy.

I see Matthews as still having potential to be the real deal. Only time will tell.

If I had to make a prediction, I'd say he plays and contributes next season.

He was the real deal in the Superbowl. It's up to him to build on that.

I think we're going to see some progression from Mathews. He's going to get more reps and chances in OTA's and TC, as Richardson will be out and Harvin is off the roster.

Kearly is right in that we exploited a size mismatch in the SB, and Browner switched over and put the clamps on Mathews, but there's a flip side to that. When Browner followed Mathews, Kearse or whoever else lined up on that 3rd guy couldn't take advantage of a 4th string CB. That's our problem right there. The other point is, how many Browners are out there ? Only one that I've seen. He's tailor made to erase a guy like Mathews, but there's plenty of other WRs that can counter that.

Mathews won't carry the offense by himself, at least this year. I think he can be a real good complimentary piece. Pair him with Graham at the same time, and there will be someone open. No one has that much size. Hell, we don't anymore either. We have 6'3" and 6'1" on the outside right now, with 6'3" in the middle and Wright at 6'4". We're also one of the longest/tallest teams in the league. Even then, Mathews and Graham on the field should create a size mismatch somewhere (we'll find this out in TC for sure).

You look at all the good passing teams, and they have at least 2 good players. 1 guy can almost always be erased (there's only one Calvin Johnson), but having a strong TE or WR 2 makes defenses stay honest. Our problem last year was that we didn't even have one dominant player. Baldwin could win matchups at times, as well as Kearse, but it was inconsistent and Wilson didn't always know what to expect. Graham will add an elite, big target....but he'll add consistency. Wilson will know what to expect, and if it's gone, he'll know where else to go.