ckparrothead
Premium Member
Mathis is a savage player that can be, at times, borderline unblockable when he rushes from a wide, up position as a stand-up rusher. However he becomes a lot more touch-and-go if he's being asked to put his hand down on the ground and rush the passer that way.
There was one such instance where he LOOKED good by converting speed to power and exploding into Casey Tucker's chest, knocking Tucker onto his butt. That looked sexy, except in order to achieve that explosiveness Mathis needs to get off balance and over extended, and he tumbled to the ground right with Tucker, essentially taking himself out of the play. When you see OLs get knocked on their butt, the detail-oriented folk will usually notice there was another linemen's foot tripping them probably 95% of the time. In this case there wasn't, so it was unique. But when you look at it all the way around, it was still a "win" for Tucker, because he took Mathis onto the ground and out of the play.
And I bring that up because it was the only "good" play that I've seen Mathis have as a down rusher in the four games I've sampled. The other plays where he puts his hand on the ground, it's him that is getting pancaked. He rarely puts his hand on the ground so we're talking perhaps 9 or 10 plays in total, but I've seen him put on the ground on at least 4 or 5 of those plays.
It should also go without saying that he's not a guy that is out there doing anything of value in a zone coverage, and his run-and-chase is pretty pedestrian. I've seen Vita Vea literally outrun him on a straightaway. Vea is a freak, I'll grant that. But he's 330+ lbs. He shouldn't be beating your 3-4 OLB in straight ahead races. And this is one reason why, even before his injuries, Mathis was kind of a part time player and it seemed like Psalm Wooching was the favorite.
Joe Mathis is a conundrum in the same way that Ejuan Price is a conundrum. There's clear value there. You don't have to look very far into the tape to see it. But when you start trying to build the case for the guy on a snap-by-snap basis, when you start reconciling his skill set with the prerequisites involved in certain roles in the NFL on real NFL defense...you get stuck. If Ejuan Price is just an obvious passing down pass rusher, he can't end up with very many snaps, and he can't ultimately be that valuable even if he's really effective. If Joe Mathis is a strict forward 3-4 OLB without a lot of versatility in coverage, he can play in that role in the NFL. But he will have a lot of competition, too. It's a role that a lot of players can play pretty well because it carries inherent advantages and doesn't tend to expose common weaknesses. In order to be truly valuable in that role he's going to have to achieve incredible pass rush efficiency. Which he can possibly do, as I said he looks unblockable as a standup rusher sometimes.
Between the lack of versatility, the off field questions about his general demeanor, and the significant injury history...I'm not expecting him to go as high as others are. If I were Miami, I would think about giving him a shot on Day 3, if he got there, because Miami's Wide-9 RDE position functions a little bit like a stand-up 3-4 OLB position, and in fact if Mathis is more comfortable rushing from the standing position and there's a clear case on film where he's more effective that way, he could actually do that in this defense and it wouldn't change much.
