Clay Matthews—The Next Jack Ham?

By John Turney 

No NFL linebacker played more seasons than Hall-of-Famer Junior Seau, who played 20. But no linebacker in league history played more games than Clay Matthews. No linebacker started more, either. Not only that, but only two defensive players -- Bruce Smith and Darrell Green -- played more games.

Clearly, Clay Matthews is one of the most durable players of all time. But Hall-of-Fame candidates need more than longevity to reach Canton. They must be elite, too.

Clay Matthews was. Yet he's been a Hall-of-Fame finalist only once.

The first pick of the Cleveland Browns in the 1978 draft, he played 19 seasons -- finishing his career in 1996 when, at the age of 40, he was a nickel pass rusher for Atlanta. A four-time Pro Bowler and a second-team All-Pro, his greatness wasn't measured by post-season recognition. It was measured by an independent scouting firm ... and Canton should pay attention.

I'm talking about Proscout, Inc., which annually ranks all players at all positions since the 1970s -- thus, covering the entirety of Matthews' career. It assigns colors for each season, with blue the highest (elite), red (very good) next, then purple (average) and so on. In 13 seasons Matthews was graded as "blue," and in four others he was "red" -- 17 of 19.

The two years he missed were his rookie year of 1978 and the strike-shortened 1982 season when he played just two games.

Still, players and coaches didn't always agree when they handed out free trips to Hawaii. Matthews only received four invites (1985, 87-89) and was a first alternate in 1986. He had another season (1984) where he was an AP second-team All-Pro, and where the Sporting News and NEA -- All-Pro teams included in the NFL's official encyclopedia -- tagged him first team.

So, essentially, he had six seasons with some sort of "all,' and, that almost certainly kept him from breaking through as a Hall-of-Fame candidate. First eligible in 2002, it took him 20 years -- or until 2021, his last year as a modern-era candidate -- to become a finalist after six tries (2012, 2017, 2019-21) as a semifinalist.

Remarkably, he advanced to the final 10 in 2021 before his candidacy expired, and that's a shame. Had he had one more year of eligibility, he would've been set up for a deep run in 2022. However, like cornerback Albert Lewis two years later (also a first-time finalist in his last year of eligibility), the clock ran out on Mathews, and he moved into the seniors' category where he's yet to be a finalist. 

And that's the rub.

The senior pool is so deep with qualified candidates that it may be a long time before Mathews emerges as one of its nominees ... if he emerges at all. And that's because his "All-Pro" profile doesn't match his skills. Matthews played a different role in his 3-4 defense than others at his position in the 1980s -- players like Lawrence Taylor and Andre Tippett, for example. The vast majority of the time, they rushed the quarterback. 

Not Matthews. His game was more varied and more diverse in terms of assignments. In any given year or game, you could see a different role --  a strong-side linebacker with responsibilities to cover the tight end or back. In likely pass defenses, he sometimes was an off-the-ball linebacker who played the edge with his hand in the dirt. Opposing players never knew where to find him ... until, that is, he was tackling, covering or sacking them.

Even with split responsibilities, he ended his career with 82-1/2 sacks, with 69-1/2 listed as official (post-1981). A review of NFL gamebooks, however, shows he had over 1,000 solo tackles, forced 27 fumbles, had 16 interceptions and was credited with 78 passes defensed.

Had he been asked only to rush on third downs, he almost certainly would've doubled his sack total.

“The thing about my brother," Hall-of-Fame lineman Bruce Matthews told Hall-of-Fame voter Tony Grossi, "which is the thing I think that is keeping him out (of Canton), is his versatility. He could play over the tight end, be stout against the run, be stout taking on blocks. 

"He did all the dirty work. He could cover. He was a nickel linebacker, great in coverage. When they finally cut him loose rushing the passer, he got 12 sacks. He did everything, and he did it very well."

OK, so that's his brother, not exactly an unbiased source. But he was supported by his coaches, too. Shortly after Matthews was drafted, his head coach -- Sam Rutigliano -- predicted that "he'll be a Jack Ham-type linebacker before it's all over with" -- a comment Marty Schottenheimer later echoed almost word for word.

On another occasion, Rutigliano explained that he saw Matthews "becoming the 'big-play' man on defense. He’s going to get more interceptions, sacks and fumbles. He has all the skills you look for in an outside linebacker — strength, speed and intelligence."

But a third coach, Bud Carson, raised the bar in his praise of the 6-2, 245-pound Matthews, and that's significant. Not because, like Rutigliano and Schotteneheimer, Carson served as Cleveland's head coach; but because he coached Ham in Pittsburgh.

"There aren’t many people who can do what he does," he said of Matthews. "I'm talking in terms of rushing the passer and covering. As great as some of our linebackers (at Pittsburgh) were — Ham. Lambert. Andy Russell — none of them could do it all like he can.

"There's not much more you can ask for from a linebacker than he gives you. On third down, there's a two-dimensional thing you have with him that most people don't have with their nickel linebackers. He is a bona-fide pass rusher. You can put him down (in a three-point stance). You've got a guy that's not someone that can be picked up by the average back that's sitting back there picking up the average linebacker. If you get a one-on-one situation with him on a back, we get great pressure ... there's nobody in the league like him. Nobody."

The comparisons to Ham are not surprising. In fact, they were by design. Shortly after he was drafted, then-Cleveland defensive coach Dave Adolph (who once told Matthews, "Don't you realize that, with your talent, you can do anything you want at linebacker?") handed Matthews films of the Steelers' great and urged him to study them. 

He did.

"(The Steelers) were our main rivals," Matthews told Cleveland.com in 2010. "But I studied Jack Lambert and Jack Ham -- their linebackers. I wanted to play like them."

He did. In fact, he played so well that someone else joined the chorus, and it wasn't another of the Browns' coaches. It was Jack Ham himself.

"He's the most complete linebacker I've ever seen in the National Football League," he told the Cleveland Plain Dealer's Chuck Heaton in 1993.

Which raises the question: Why hasn't Clay Matthews been more than a one-time finalist for Canton? A couple of reasons, one of which I explained: He didn't have enough post-season recognition to satisfy voters. But I believe there's another: Cleveland's failure to win a championship. Three times the Browns came close, but each time (1986-87 and 1989) they lost to Denver in the conference championship game.

When Matthews missed the Pro Bowl in 1984 despite a career-best 12 sacks, he indirectly alluded to the importance of Super Bowls, saying that "in the end, to be remembered, you have to be part of a Super Bowl team, not the Pro Bowl."

He was prophetic. Cleveland's lack of postseason success probably hinders Matthews's case as much as anything.

So what does all this mean for his Hall-of-Fame chances? Only members of the seniors' committee know. Though Matthews didn't have a surfeit of All-Pro recognition like Ham or Seau, that shouldn't exclude him. Others with Gold Jackets don't, either, including offensive lineman Jackie Slater, a 20-year pro. He wasn't all-decade and never was first-team AP All-Pro, though he was second-team several times and made NEA's (voted on by players) All-Pro teams in 1987 and 1989 and Pro Football Weekly's All-NFL team in 1988.

However, Slater did make seven Pro Bowls, as did another 20-year veteran -- Darrell Green. Both bested Matthews' total of four. Green had one year as an AP All-Pro, plus three other "all" seasons, essentially from the same sources as Slater. But Green also was a 1980's all-decade selection.

The point is that Matthews's credentials are not that much different from that pair of players, both of whom lasted in the NFL for two decades.

"How many players are so good for so long?" the late Joel Buchsbaum of Pro Football Weekly asked of Matthews. "However, he was not flashy."

There should be a place in Canton for a distinguished linebacker who wasn't "flashy" but had a complete skill-set; someone who could play the strong and weak sides in 3-4 and a 4-3 defensive schemes and excel as a cover backer, rush backer and someone who stuffed the run.

Clay Matthews did what was asked, and he did it so well that his coaches compared him to one of the best ever at his position. That should be enough to emerge as a senior candidate in the near future, and, hopefully, it happens.

He deserves it.