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While many of the highly talented players on the Dolphins’ roster started their career somewhere else, Rishard Matthews was drafted by Miami in the seventh round of the 2012 draft. Playing college ball in Nevada with Colin Kaepernick, Matthews’ superb 113 yards per game in his final season still resulted in 28 receivers being selected before him. Like most seventh round picks, he was a relative non-factor for much of his rookie season, seeing the field on offense in just six games and catching only eleven passes. Despite the lack of playing time, the Dolphins’ front office decided to keep Matthews around another year while adding Brandon Gibson to a not insubstantial contract prior to the 2013 season.
But 2013 was a different year for Matthews. Gibson, brought in to garner significant playing time, suffered a mid-season knee injury that saw Matthews take over the No. 3 receiver role behind Mike Wallace and Brian Hartline. Playing over half of the team’s snaps in every game since Week 9, Matthews tallied 331 receiving yards over the last half of the season, earning a +5.2 grade on the year.
Matthews flashed serious potential in a breakout game against Tampa Bay, though few would notice with the Martin/ Incognito scandal in full swing. While the Dolphins would go on to hand the Buccaneers their first win of the season, it wasn’t for a lack of effort on Matthews’ part. He quietly went on to record his first career 100 yard game, catching 11 of the 14 balls thrown his way. Aside from raw yardage totals, Matthews picked up two touchdowns and seven additional first downs in the process as the Bucs’ secondary looked helpless to stop him.
The rest of the season would be less spectacular for Matthews, but a look into our Signature Stats shows some bright spots. A lone drop on a crossing pattern in Week 17 would blemish Matthews’ otherwise perfect season catching the ball as he earned the fourth-best Drop Percentage among wideouts who saw at least 44 targets on the year. His 37 receptions from the slot were 15th-most, and while that’s not spectacular, it’s impressive when you consider 44 receivers spent more time in the slot than Matthews.
read more:https://www.profootballfocus.com/bl...&utm_campaign=secret-superstars-2014-dolphins
While many of the highly talented players on the Dolphins’ roster started their career somewhere else, Rishard Matthews was drafted by Miami in the seventh round of the 2012 draft. Playing college ball in Nevada with Colin Kaepernick, Matthews’ superb 113 yards per game in his final season still resulted in 28 receivers being selected before him. Like most seventh round picks, he was a relative non-factor for much of his rookie season, seeing the field on offense in just six games and catching only eleven passes. Despite the lack of playing time, the Dolphins’ front office decided to keep Matthews around another year while adding Brandon Gibson to a not insubstantial contract prior to the 2013 season.
But 2013 was a different year for Matthews. Gibson, brought in to garner significant playing time, suffered a mid-season knee injury that saw Matthews take over the No. 3 receiver role behind Mike Wallace and Brian Hartline. Playing over half of the team’s snaps in every game since Week 9, Matthews tallied 331 receiving yards over the last half of the season, earning a +5.2 grade on the year.
Matthews flashed serious potential in a breakout game against Tampa Bay, though few would notice with the Martin/ Incognito scandal in full swing. While the Dolphins would go on to hand the Buccaneers their first win of the season, it wasn’t for a lack of effort on Matthews’ part. He quietly went on to record his first career 100 yard game, catching 11 of the 14 balls thrown his way. Aside from raw yardage totals, Matthews picked up two touchdowns and seven additional first downs in the process as the Bucs’ secondary looked helpless to stop him.
The rest of the season would be less spectacular for Matthews, but a look into our Signature Stats shows some bright spots. A lone drop on a crossing pattern in Week 17 would blemish Matthews’ otherwise perfect season catching the ball as he earned the fourth-best Drop Percentage among wideouts who saw at least 44 targets on the year. His 37 receptions from the slot were 15th-most, and while that’s not spectacular, it’s impressive when you consider 44 receivers spent more time in the slot than Matthews.
read more:https://www.profootballfocus.com/bl...&utm_campaign=secret-superstars-2014-dolphins