… According to Clay Matthews. The Green Bay Packers gave their star defensive player a huge contract extension on Wednesday, which made him the highest-paid linebacker in the NFL. Does that mean Clay Matthews is the best linebacker in the league?
The fish aren’t biting, Tyler Dunne.
“Am I best linebacker? Ahh, hmm, I’m not going to take your bait,” Matthews said. “But I think I play this game at a high level and I agree with the numbers they put up as well as what I’ve been able to accomplish both on the field and off the field as well as my leadership.
“Take that for what you want, but I think I bring a lot to this game.”
That, apparently, was Dunne’s question to Matthews. You’re the highest-paid linebacker. Are you the best linebacker?
Matthews didn’t have a hell of a lot to say after signing his new mega-deal, but we found it amusing that the Journal Sentinel used that angle as their lead on the follow-up story.
Here’s the real deal, though. It was buried deep down in said story and is something we’ve been discussing for the majority of the offseason. Are Aaron Rodgers‘ and Matthews’ contracts going to cripple the Packers financially?
“One thing this organization does well,” Matthews said, “I know we catch a little heat sometimes that we like to build through the draft and develop our players and we’ve done a great job of that. Our free agents are the ones who were up on their contracts. It’s no different than Aaron, myself or whoever’s up next. I’ll leave that to them, but for the most part we’ve had some success here over the last few years in maintaining keep players and I don’t see it to be any different.”
Matthews spoke a lot of truth in that statement. The biggest truth is the I’ll leave that to them part.
We’re not going to hate on Matthews for getting a huge deal. By NFL standards, he deserves it. We’re note going to hate on Rodgers when he breaks the bank either.
The front office better have made the right decision for the franchise, though.