Rams sign Clay Matthews

Albert Breer@AlbertBreer
The Rams are doing what the Patriots have done forever now — picking off ring-hungry vets at a discount the end of their careers.

Advantage of being a) a winner and b) in LA.

https://www.rotoworld.com/football/nfl/teams/gb/green-bay-packers

Rams signed OLB Clay Matthews, formerly of the Packers, to a two-year contract.
Edge pressure is a big need for a Rams team that is paying Dante Fowler $12 million this season. Fowler has never been a sack master, but Matthews’ addition should help in a big way, even if Matthews is embarking on his 33rd birthday (in May) and coming off a 3.5-sack season. Matthews was near the bottom of Pro Football Focus’ pass-rush productivity grades last season, generating just 30 total pressures on 356 snaps rushing the quarterback. Matthews and Samson Ebukam will team with Fowler off the edge for L.A

PFF LA Rams@PFF_Rams
Clay Matthews is now on the LA Rams!

Last season he had the most Tackles and Stops since his 2015 season, and should provide immediate sparks for #Rams rush defense & pass rush

snowman wrote:

My co-worker is a Packers fan and he told me that at this age, Matthews is probably just a situational OLB pass rusher. Doesn’t think he can play ILB, but he could be a blitzer from there.

Yeah, I wonder if they see Matthews as a piece they move around to field different looks and attacks. A smart veteran like Matthews could be perfect for that. He doesn;t have to line up at just OLB or just ILB or just in the base 3/4. They could draw up all sorts of things for him and move him around. That’s something we know Wade just does and is good at–he draws up all these variations and subpackages and forces offenses to contend with that. Matthews could fit right into that kind of thing. Situational stuff, subpackages stuff, variations on the fronts they field, etc

Clay Matthews gives Rams options if he’s properly utilized

Vincent Bonsignore

https://theathletic.com/879476/2019/03/20/clay-matthews-gives-rams-options-if-hes-properly-utilized/

The Rams’ interest in adding veteran pass-rusher Clay Matthews III wasn’t all that surprising, given their needs and salary-cap situation. With recent big contract extensions — Aaron Donald, Brandin Cooks and Todd Gurley — felt in earnest this year, and Dante Fowler Jr. and Marcus Peters getting big bumps in pay, there were limited funds available to address roster concerns.

The plan going into free agency was to head straight to the bargain aisle, in the hopes of finding reasonably priced veterans who still had something in the tank. That’s where they found safety Eric Weddle, who was released by the Baltimore Ravens in a salary-cap-cutting move two weeks ago, and it’s where they secured Matthews on Tuesday to potentially add juice to their pass rush.

The idea of adding Matthews got a big boost last season — just like with Weddle. In many ways, the interest in Weddle started last August at the Ravens’ facility in Owings Mills, Md., where the Rams and Ravens went through two rigorous days of joint practices, and the 33-year-old Weddle displayed leadership, intelligence and playmaking. Across the line of scrimmage, Rams coach Sean McVay took note. McVay referred to those notes two weeks ago when Weddle popped onto the Rams’ radar as a possible addition. It’s part of the reason he was so eager to add Weddle.

Matthews made a similar impression on McVay last October, when the Packers pushed the Rams to the brink at the Coliseum in a hard-fought 29-27 Rams win that wasn’t secured until the closing minute. Matthews might not be as explosive and dynamic as he once was, but he was active and engaged against the Rams that day. He had six tackles and one sack in 49 snaps that saw him deployed as an outside, middle and inside linebacker and as a defensive end while being utilized as a pass-rusher and run-stopper.

It left an obvious impression on McVay, who required little swaying when the 32-year-old Matthews was brought up as a possible free-agent addition.

“Yeah, he didn’t need convincing after we played them,” a Rams source told The Athletic.

The Rams inked the longtime Packers linebacker to a two-year deal worth upwards of $16.75 million. Matthews reportedly spurned more lucrative offers for the chance to return home to help the Rams get back to the Super Bowl. He lives in nearby Calabasas and went to high school in Agoura Hills before emerging as an All-American at USC.

Given the Rams’ limited salary-cap space and need to inject more juice into their pass rush, Matthews makes plenty of sense. He comes at a reasonable price, and as he showed the Rams last year, when managed and utilized prudently he still brings something to the table. He finished last season with 43 tackles and 3.5 sacks, although he had another sack taken away by a controversial roughing-the-passer call against the Washington Redskins. The numbers aren’t great, and it remains to be seen how much gas Matthews has left, but the Rams believe he can produce respectable numbers as a rotational piece in Wade Phillips’ defense.

According to Rams sources, part of Matthews’ allure was versatility in playing outside or inside — he played inside linebacker for the Packers for most of 2014-15 — which gives defensive coordinator Phillips plenty of options when scheming packages for him.

Matthews won’t start — the Rams are set at outside linebacker with Fowler and Samson Ebukham, two young players they believe have untapped potential. And second-year player Ogbonnia Okoronkwo also will be in the mix. But given that the Rams were in base defense approximately 30 percent of the time last year, there will be ample opportunities and ways to deploy Matthews. Perhaps that even will be alongside Fowler and Ebukam — to whom Matthews will serve as a mentor — to create multiple pressure points for opposing offenses to contend with. They’ll do so with Donald occupying multiple blockers on almost every snap, so there figures to be plenty of advantageous matchups.

Keeping Matthews fresh and healthy will be the key, which is why playing in a rotation with Ebukam, Fowler and possibly Okoronkwo should benefit him over the course of the season. The Rams have shown prudence and shrewdness in how they manage players’ bodies by giving them practice days off during the week — Andrew Whitworth, John Sullivan and Rodger Saffold come to mind — and that certainly will be part of the table for Matthews. Both Saffold and Sullivan missed significant time with injuries prior to working with McVay and his staff, but both made it through the last two seasons with only minor issues.

Is Matthews the player he once was? No, obviously.

Can he still contribute? If utilized prudently and managed accordingly, yes.

Where will Clay Matthews play within the Rams’ defense? “I expect my position to be fluid.”

Myles Simmons

https://www.therams.com/news/where-will-clay-matthews-play-within-the-rams-defense-i-expect-my-position-to-be

“Well any time we have one of these, you know it’s a good day for the Rams.”

That’s how head coach Sean McVay began his opening statement during Los Angeles’ introductory press conference for linebacker Clay Matthews, who officially signed his two-year deal with the Rams on Thursday.

Matthews — the Packers’ all-time leader since the sack became official in 1982 with 83.5 — sat between McVay and general manager Les Snead to field questions about why he decided to come home to L.A. And the first thing he mentioned was how successful the team has been over the last couple years.

“It’s truly remarkable in such a short amount of time — especially coming to L.A. So from a football standpoint, it makes perfect sense,” Matthews said. “But for me personally, where I’m at in my career, having grown up in the area, living all of 20 minutes away from here, it made sense. We’re building a house out here. I’ve got three kids now. I think my wife was more excited than I was to have signed with the Rams.”

But more than that, Matthews noted that like Los Angeles’ other free agent signings in safety Eric Weddle and backup quarterback Blake Bortles — this was the place where he wanted to be.

“It’s obviously a new experience for me. I’ve been fortunate enough to be with the same organization for 10 years, so this was definitely new,” Matthews said. “But as soon as my chance to return to Green Bay was kind of past me, I knew I wanted to come to the Rams. And I put it on my agent, and put it on these guys here to try to get something done. And fortunately the feeling was mutual, and they were very receptive to the idea. And I talked with [assistant head coach/linebackers coach] Joe Barry as well as Sean, just seeing how I’d fit within the defense — and it seemed like a perfect fit.”

If you’ve followed Matthews’ career, you likely know that he started out mainly as an edge rusher before moving to inside linebacker midway through. Now as he comes to Los Angeles, McVay said Matthews’ role is going to be all about emphasizing his strengths.

“When you have a player that has that versatile skillset, you can utilize him in a variety of ways,” McVay said. “I think, obviously, what he does at an extremely high level is when he’s going forward and trying to affect and influence the quarterback, rushing the quarterback, setting the edge in the run game. So I think you’ll see a lot of that. But then when you get into some of those known-passing situations, you can get creative with where you’re moving him around.”

“But those are exciting things for us as coaches to think through,” McVay continued. “We’ve been spending a lot of time today even thinking about how you want to utilize him, how you can get Aaron [Donald], [Dante] Fowler, and some of these guys in situations to take advantage of the matchups you can create with players like that. So it’s exciting, and it’s something that’s going to be evolving as we get more familiar with each other.”

After describing his positional journey through the league, Matthews said he felt he excelled at both inside and outside linebacker.

“I thought when you allow me to play in space, and you allow me to go sideline to sideline downhill, good things are going to happen. So I expect it to be the same here. I expect my position to be fluid. I expect I’ll have a variety of roles,” Matthews said. “But I think the most important thing — kind of what Sean alluded to — is just pressing the quarterback, making him make bad decision, and keeping the heat, keeping the pressure on him.”

And even though he’ll turn 33 in May, Matthews feels he still has the ability to play at a high level in order to contribute to another run at an NFC West title in Los Angeles.

“I know I have the ability to produce like I’ve done before. And not to make excuses, but there was some change last year in the Packers organization, and, unfortunately, it didn’t work out for me,” Matthews said. “But as far as moving forward, I know I’m a difference-maker. I know I can change games and I look forward to doing that, and proving that, and showing to everybody here — you guys, the fans — that what you saw these past 10 years is what you’ll get from these next two.”