Colts Draft Prospect Casey Matthews (Clays lil bro)

Player Profile

Player Name: Casey Matthews

Position: Inside Linebacker

School: Oregon

Height: 6'2'

Weight: 237

Career Stats

Strengths:

Matthews’ biggest strength is his athleticism. He’s also an extremely intelligent player who does well reading and reacting to the offensive play on every down. He has a non-stop motor, playing well sideline to sideline. He’s a very good tackler who’s very fundamentally sound. He doesn’t often get caught out of position, and he uses his athleticism to make up for his lack of overall bulk.

Matthews is also excellent in making plays in coverage. He covers his zone almost effortlessly, and has a knack for finding the ball. He’s an underrated pass rusher on the inside, and has the speed to maybe make the transition to the OLB position

Weakness:

Weaknesses

The biggest knock on Matthews is his size. He’s not the biggest or strongest player on the football field. He plays in a very loosely-based zone defense in Oregon, which helps his athleticism shine. He’s most likely restricted to a 4-3 role, but he’s versatile enough to play all three linebacker positions in a 4-3 scheme.

While he’s not weak by any means, he still needs to improve on his strength and use his arms to get off blocks, rather than getting fully engaged with blockers.

Draft Range

Right now, it’s completely open as to where Matthews goes. His brother, Clay, had some of the same size weaknesses coming out. But hard work propelled Clay into the first, and Casey could do the same if he works out well enough at the combine. Right now, his ceiling is as high as a late first round pick, but he’ll most likely be selected between the middle of the second round and the middle of the third round.

All Credit for that Prospect goes to Keet Bailey of b/r                                                                                  http://bleacherreport.com/articles/569057-2011-nfl-draft-casey-matthews-scouting-report-and-player-profile

My Opinion:

  I have watched Casey this year and think he is a perfect fit for the colts defense if he can make the transition to OLB and may become a cheaper option than resigning (it kills me to say this) Clint Session. The colts have a predominantly undersized defense with great speed and play mostly zones.

  This is the perfect defense were we don't require him to rush the QB all to often but to match up on a RB or TE which Casey is more than capable of doing unlike Session who seems lost in coverage !!

  Having Session, Matthews, Brackett and Angerer in a rotation would boost the colts ability to play the run and cover the middle of the field effectivly. With colts facing serious running threats of pocket Hercules CJ2k and Frosty Foster (new nickname take it or leave it hahaha) for 6 games in the upcoming season an upgrade in the LB position is now more crucial than ever.

  And if Casey can but the bulk on like Clay did we will have a beast of an outside linebacker by his second year !!!

  I think the colts should take him in the second round and the only way i see us doing this is either picking up a solid offensive lineman out of free agency or signing Brendon LaBatte.

  What do you guys reckon lets get some off season chat going !!!!