We know a lot of people are frustrated with Green Bay Packers linebacker Clay Matthews.
He’s missed four games, including the last three in a row, with a hamstring injury. It also seems like that whenever Matthews is injured, it’s his damn hamstring.
Clay Matthews has the hamstrings of a prepubescent girl. Actually, they’re probably not even that good.
Anyway, frustration reigns.
Last week, former Packers’ tight end Jermichael Finley let some of that frustration out.
Matthews got paid & then stop being hungry. https://t.co/CjdkcLPSmL
— Jermichael Finley (@JermichaelF88) November 11, 2016
Lost love for the game seem like. #Packers https://t.co/luYh3BKJG6
— Jermichael Finley (@JermichaelF88) November 11, 2016
He's getting paid 70M. At this point he could tell the coaches what to do. If he really wanted to play he would be out there. https://t.co/nVgXM5h5dU
— Jermichael Finley (@JermichaelF88) November 11, 2016
We’ve certainly had our problems with Matthews. We’ll never forget when he pulled himself from the 2014 NFC Championship game.
Is he dogging it this year?
We couldn’t tell you.
There’s certainly something to be said for playing through pain. A lot of guys do it in the NFL. Matthews doesn’t appear to be one of them, but we can’t tell you how bad he’s currently hurt.
Saying you want to play, actually being able to play effectively and being cleared to play are three very different things.
We would agree with one thing, though.
Matthews hasn’t lived up to his huge contract. The guy’s average salary is $13.2 million per season. His cap hit has been rising each year since he signed his deal in 2013. It will reach a high of $15.2 million in 2017 and he still has another year on his deal after that.
Meanwhile, Matthews’ season high in sacks is still the 13.5 he put up in 2010. He’s only had double digits in that category twice since.
For what the Packers are paying Matthews, they should be getting 15-sack seasons every year.
That isn’t to say Matthews isn’t valuable to the defense. We’ve all seen the lack of pass rush they’ve generated while he’s been out the past three games. We’ve seen him save the defense by playing inside linebacker.
But again, valuable to the defense and worth $13 million a year are two different things.
Unfortunately for the Packers, Matthews isn’t alone in not living up to his contract. More on that at another time, though.
The good news is Matthews returned to practice on Wednesday, albeit on a limited basis.
Same ol Finley. Did the author call out Finley on his comments at all? No? Fine, i’ll take care of it.
First of all, i have no idea if anything Finley says is true. Problem is, neither does he. Is Finley now a Doctor? Did he treat Mathews injury? Diagnose it?
As far as his desire to play, did Mathews tell him he just wants a free ride? That he just doesn’t want to play?
So what do we take from Finley’s tweets? Does he have some 1st hand knowledge, or is he just talking fast and loose. Maybe trying to get noticed in the media, because he’s a nobody now. Maybe his 10 million is running out. Maybe he’s bitter because he never got it after all.
Here’s what i know for fact….i called it. I’m not going to search back for my post, but…….while everyone was having a love fest with Finley when he got hurt and retired. I posted that he’s gonna be the same asshole he’s been. Just give him time.
I guess it’s time.
It takes a real man (on twitter) to kick a man when he’s down.
This is the perfect example when an author get’s his article content from the likes of twitter, Instagram, and various gossip venues.
Garbage in, garbage out.
Monty, breathe easy… Totalpackers.com is in no danger of losing Mordi to ESPN.
Guy’s an asshole, always has been
Packers “playmakers” aren’t, and they’re aging besides. Lots of salary devoted to marginal performance at the high end of the roster. TT has yet to demonstrate true playmakers entering the pipeline: WRs-NO, RBs-NO, LBs-NO, DBs-NO. I’ll give you Daniels, and that’s about it. TT needs to go; try to entice Schneider back with full control of operations, which he doesn’t have in Seattle.
exactly…man I watch the game sometimes and realize we have absolutely no next level talent at any position other than qb.
While I don’t disagree with the notion that Finley is an asshole, he is right in some respect. No, Matthews isn’t dogging it. However, he is way overpaid. He is not available too often. He has never been great against the run, the pass pressures are down (sacks aren’t everything). I think the fact he plays 100mph and he has glass hamstrings have have worn him down and he simply isn’t as effective as he once was. Next year will likely be his last in green and gold.
Leave CM3 alone. He’s probably been using his time off to further build his brand by doing commercials.