Packers agree to terms with Matthews

[CaptainD]

Green Bay – The Green Bay Packers have agreed to terms with first-round draft choice Clay Matthews on a new contract.

According to an NFL source with knowledge of the deal, Matthews the base portion of the five-year deal is worth $10 million and there will be an opportunity for him to earn $13.275 million overall.

Matthews is the second of the Packers’ two first-round draft choices. The linebacker from USC was the 26th pick overall and is expected to compete for a starting job as a rush linebacker.

The Packers now have seven of their eight draft picks in the fold. The only player that remains unsigned is Boston College nose tackle B.J. Raji, the ninth pick overall.

[Freak Out]

Nice to get Clay signed...one more to go.

[CaptainKickass]

Re: Packers agree to terms with Matthews

Green Bay – The Green Bay Packers have agreed to terms with first-round draft choice Clay Matthews on a new contract.

According to an NFL source with knowledge of the deal, Matthews the base portion of the five-year deal is worth $10 million and there will be an opportunity for him to earn $13.275 million overall.

Matthews is the second of the Packers’ two first-round draft choices. The linebacker from USC was the 26th pick overall and is expected to compete for a starting job as a rush linebacker.

The Packers now have seven of their eight draft picks in the fold. The only player that remains unsigned is Boston College nose tackle B.J. Raji, the ninth pick overall.

Patler/Waldo -

A 5 year deal? How does that get affected by the upcoming lack of CBA/uncapped year?

How is the $$ that Pack spent on him for value? Will other players get pissed because here's this guy who never played a down in the NFL getting more $$ than they are?

Sorry guys - I got more questions than answers as usual.

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[rbaloha1]

Good news. Requires the entire camp to compete with Thompson for starting olb.

IMO Thompson wins the job. Matthews becomes a star special team player and future reliable ("just a guy") starter.

[Waldo]

Re: Packers agree to terms with Matthews

Green Bay – The Green Bay Packers have agreed to terms with first-round draft choice Clay Matthews on a new contract.

According to an NFL source with knowledge of the deal, Matthews the base portion of the five-year deal is worth $10 million and there will be an opportunity for him to earn $13.275 million overall.

Matthews is the second of the Packers’ two first-round draft choices. The linebacker from USC was the 26th pick overall and is expected to compete for a starting job as a rush linebacker.

The Packers now have seven of their eight draft picks in the fold. The only player that remains unsigned is Boston College nose tackle B.J. Raji, the ninth pick overall.

Patler/Waldo -

A 5 year deal? How does that get affected by the upcoming lack of CBA/uncapped year?

How is the $$ that Pack spent on him for value? Will other players get pissed because here's this guy who never played a down in the NFL getting more $$ than they are?

Sorry guys - I got more questions than answers as usual.

.

.

Clay's deal has a base average of 2M/yr that could escalate to 2.7M/yr

Chillar's deal averages 3.2M/yr
Poppinga's deal averages 3.4M/yr
Barnett's deal averages 5.8M/yr (though his '09 cap # is 4.4M)
Hawk's deal averages 6.2M/yr
Kamp's deal averages 5.1M/yr (his '09 cap # is 5.9M)

Thompson counts 500K toward the cap this year.

[Lurker64]

Given Mr. Matthews's apparent passion for football and the fact that he was largely held out of minicamp, I wouldn't be surprised if he gave his agent an ultimatum of the effect "Get what you can, but I will not miss one day, one hour, one minute, or one second of training camp."

[Cheesehead Craig]

He was much more important to get to camp on time than BJ. Lot more to go over as a LB than a DL.

[Noodle]

Looks to me like the Packers got good value. In any event, I thought most of the guys in the first round were slot deals. Number 6 makes this, so number 7 makes that. Not much room for screwing around.

Guys always try to punch out of the slot number ("but everyone considers me a number 3 pick"), but the slot generally rules.

[MadScientist]

Re: Packers agree to terms with Matthews

Clay's deal has a base average of 2M/yr that could escalate to 2.7M/yr

Chillar's deal averages 3.2M/yr
Poppinga's deal averages 3.4M/yr
Barnett's deal averages 5.8M/yr (though his '09 cap # is 4.4M)
Hawk's deal averages 6.2M/yr
Kamp's deal averages 5.1M/yr (his '09 cap # is 5.9M)

Thompson counts 500K toward the cap this year.

Wow 25+ million in cap space for linebackers. Anyone know what other 3-4 teams spend on LB's?

[rbaloha1]

Re: Packers agree to terms with Matthews

Clay's deal has a base average of 2M/yr that could escalate to 2.7M/yr

Chillar's deal averages 3.2M/yr
Poppinga's deal averages 3.4M/yr
Barnett's deal averages 5.8M/yr (though his '09 cap # is 4.4M)
Hawk's deal averages 6.2M/yr
Kamp's deal averages 5.1M/yr (his '09 cap # is 5.9M)

Thompson counts 500K toward the cap this year.

Wow 25+ million in cap space for linebackers. Anyone know what other 3-4 teams spend on LB's?

The shift to a 3-4 requires allocating more money to lbs--which is a positive for special teams.

[vince]

Packers cut Jamarko Simmons to make room on the roster for Matthews. Based on his physical stature and college production, I was hoping he'd impress the coaches and at least make the practice squad. Perhaps his injury during OTA/Minicamp forced the issue.

[Lurker64]

Packers cut Jamarko Simmons to make room on the roster for Matthews. Based on his physical stature and college production, I was hoping he'd impress the coaches and at least make the practice squad. Perhaps his injury during OTA/Minicamp forced the issue.

Yeah, I was thinking he'd be one of the last WRs cut. I wonder why they're not happy with him.

[Spaulding]

Packers cut Jamarko Simmons to make room on the roster for Matthews. Based on his physical stature and college production, I was hoping he'd impress the coaches and at least make the practice squad. Perhaps his injury during OTA/Minicamp forced the issue.

Yeah, I was thinking he'd be one of the last WRs cut. I wonder why they're not happy with him.

Maybe they view the WR position being pretty much set with Jennings, Driver, Jones, Nelson and Martin and figure if anything Swain was more likely to challenge for the 5th roster spot than Simmons based on the fact he couldn't show his stuff due to injury.

Plus given he's evidently pretty tight with Jennings, maybe they figured cutting him now gives him a better chance of landing in some other training camp to make a roster.

[HarveyWallbangers]

Reports say that Swain and Heckendorf have been impressive. I hadn't heard much about the other young WRs.

[CaliforniaCheez]

I was a bit suprised because Matthews agency represents the 2 guys drafted just after Matthews and they hadn't signed yet.

I figured the agent to wait at least on those two to be signed. Now those 2 are limited by Matthews deal.

That could be a good sign as that agency also represents Raji. The bad thing is that Raji is that agency's highest pick this year. They may want all they can from it.