Clay Matthews
Inducted: 2024
Linebacker: 2009-18
Height: 6-3; Weight: 255
College: Southern Cal, 2005-08
Honors:
NFL All-Decade Team: 2000s
Associated Press All-Pro Team (chosen since 1940): 2010
Pro Bowl Selection (played from 1950-2022): 2009, '10, '11, '12, '14, '15
Clay Matthews will be long remembered for making one of the biggest defensive plays in the storied history of the Green Bay Packers: his forced fumble in Super Bowl XLV. But in the big picture what made Matthews special was his all-around ability and consistency as an impact player.
One play didn't come close to defining his career, no matter how consequential it was.
"Clay does all three phases of the game equally dynamic," Kevin Greene, Packers linebacker coach from 2009-13, once said. "He is a dynamic pass rusher. He plays the run hard at the point of attack. And he covers like (future Pro Football Hall of Famer) Steve Atwater. He's like a big strong safety."
Although Matthews didn't become a starter until his final 10 games as a senior at Southern Cal, former Packers general manager Ted Thompson traded one second- and two third-round draft picks for New England's first-round choice, the 26th overall, and an extra fifth-rounder to land Matthews in the 2009 draft.
Considering he was a late bloomer who had played almost exclusively on special teams his first three seasons at USC, it certainly didn't hurt that Matthews came from a long football pedigree.
His grandfather, Clay Matthews Sr., was a lineman who played four seasons with San Francisco in the early 1950s. His father, Clay Matthews Jr., played linebacker for 19 seasons from 1978-96 with Cleveland and Atlanta. His uncle, Bruce Matthews, played in the offensive line for 19 years, all with the same franchise: the Houston Oilers from 1983-96 and then following their move with Tennessee from 1997-2001.
Thompson, who spent 10 years with the Oilers, played against Clay Jr. and two years with Bruce, and saw similar traits in Clay Matthews III. Greene's career also overlapped Clay Jr.'s and Bruce's.
"When I was talking to him (Clay III), it was clear that he's a man on a mission," Greene said on draft day. "Everybody knows his genealogy and his bloodlines, but just listening to him and hearing him talk, he's a man … that wants to stand on his own and be considered a great player in his own right."
Matthews' impact with the Packers was immediate. He finished third in Associated Press Defensive Rookie of the Year voting, registered 10 sacks and made the Pro Bowl.
"He just has all the tools," said teammate and future Pro Football Hall of Fame defensive back Charles Woodson. "He's fast. He's big. He can make any move, and he doesn't stop. So he has the total package."
In his second season, Matthews increased his sacks to 13½, finished second in AP Defensive Player of the Year voting and was one of three defenders on a Super Bowl champion voted in as a starter for the Pro Bowl.
That was based on his regular-season play and even forced New England coach Bill Belichick to all but admit that he had passed on a special player when he traded his 2009 No. 1 choice to the Packers.
"He's a good football player, real good football player," Belichick said before the Patriots played the Packers in December 2010. "He's quick. He's active. (He's) got a great motor. He makes a lot of plays that he looks like he might be out of, but he has the ability to recover (with) speed, quickness, his motor."
That postseason, Matthews upped his game even more.
In the NFC Wild Card playoff, he sacked Philadelphia's incomparably elusive quarterback Michael Vick for a 12-yard loss on the first series of the second quarter, allowing the Packers to grab an early 14-0 lead in a 21-16 victory. Against Atlanta in the NFC Divisional playoff, he sacked quarterback Matt Ryan for a 9-yard loss with 10 seconds remaining in the first half to set up Tramon Williams' tide-turning interception for a touchdown on the next play, resulting in a 14-point lead. In the fourth quarter, Matthews also recovered a fumble, helping seal a 48-21 victory. Against Chicago in the NFC Championship, he had six tackles and a half-sack.
Then came the Super Bowl when Matthews made what was arguably the biggest defensive play of the game – despite Nick Collins' first-quarter, 37-yard interception return for a touchdown – because of how the momentum had shifted after halftime.
With the Packers' 18-point second-quarter lead down to four, and the Steelers needing only two yards to convert a second-down play at the Packers' 33-yard line, Matthews drilled running back Rashard Mendenhall in the hole, forcing a fumble that Desmond Bishop recovered and eventually led to a touchdown and a 31-25 victory.
"Clay's hit and Bishop's fumble recovery were huge momentum swings in that game," said Mike McCarthy, who was Matthews' head coach his entire time in Green Bay. "(Matthews) called out the play, one-back power. Then he told (Ryan) Pickett to crack. Pickett blew up the play. Clay hits him and puts him on the ground."
While hamstring injuries hampered Matthews throughout his career and had a bearing on him recording only one double-digit sack season and making only two Pro Bowls in his final six years in Green Bay, he managed to earn everlasting respect when he moved from an outside to inside linebacker position in 2014. He started there for 25 games over three seasons and that, too, took a toll on his numbers.
"I called him into the office and said, 'I need you to be the green dot, the mike off the ball. It's the best thing for our defense,'" McCarthy recalled. "'I understand the success that you've had repeatedly on the outside, but, frankly, it will make us better. … So he made the switch. Didn't even blink."
Matthews played in 143 games for the Packers and started 137. In the process, he broke the team's all-time sack record – going back to 1982, when it became an official statistic – with 83½. He also started 15 postseason games for the Packers and recorded another 11 sacks.
Following the 2018 season, the Packers allowed Matthews' contract to expire and he became a free agent. He finished his career with the Los Angeles Rams in 2019 and was released after the season, despite adding another eight sacks to his career total.
Born May 14, 1986, in Northridge, Calif. Given name William Clay Matthews III.
