With the NFL Draft kicking off tomorrow, we’re taking a look at another potential “Next Level Ram” in Trent Matthews.

Trent Matthews isn’t as under the radar as say his teammate and fellow safety Kevin Pierre-Louis, who had only one website profile him, but neither are getting the exposure they deserve. Especially in the eyes of the national draft media, as Matthews is ranked by CBSSports.com in their free safety rankings (15th at the position) and even appears in Pro Football Draft® Guide’s (ranked 20th among all safeties) safety preview. This does come as a surprise both in the two players’ popularity amongst fans; Matthews was certainly a well-known team leader, but didn’t rack up the highlight type plays that KPL did. Matthews’ season also ended in Week 12 against Fresno State as he suffered an ACL tear. This injury will be an important factor for teams in his evaluation.

Though, he’s looking healthy lately, as this video he posted shows:

Today I Had A Great Workout. Blessed👌🏾🙏🏾🏈🙌🏾 pic.twitter.com/eosHOlhf2t

— Trent Matthews (@Tmatthews16) April 25, 2016

After studying four games of Matthews’ from the 2013 and 2015 seasons (finding tape on 2014 has been almost impossible), watching him throughout his career at CSU, and attending his Pro Day, here’s my scouting report.

As always, we’ll look at Matthews’ strengths first, followed by his weaknesses and then wrap it all up in the end.

Strengths:

• Matthews has very good size for a free safety at 6-foot-2, 210 pounds and can be a contributor in all phases of the game because of this.
• He isn’t limited to center fielder duties and can contribute against the run as well and play up towards the line of scrimmage.
• Matthews had 10 career interceptions; his ball skills combined with his versatility and size are probably his best to look at when projecting him to the NFL level.
• Prior to the ACL injury, Matthews was a reliable and durable player for the Rams defense. In 2015, he tied Weston Richburg with 50 career starts (a CSU record).
• Trent’s tackling numbers, size and ability as a tackler suggest he could even play as a strong safety.
• Had one of his best games against defending National Champion Alabama, maybe his best game in coverage of the four games I studied.
  • Matthews was used to cover the slot on several snaps without giving up big plays or looking out of place. Looked good when used in coverage against the tight end.
  • Matthews shows good coverage underneath on tight ends in zone, quickly reacts to pass thrown to sideline comes in and assisted Bernard Blake with 3rd down tackle and gets the stop.
  • Also had a good play against the run and held the edge against the run, forcing the runner inside for the stop (however he is to easily blocked by the fullback).
• Picked off New Mexico quarterback in 2015 game against the Lobos on New Mexico’s second play from scrimmage. The next play, CSU scored a touchdown for the 14-0 lead in a game they needed to, and did, win.

Weaknesses:

• It’s painful to do this but when studying tape of Matthews and going back through my notes (unlike the other prospects I studied tape of DeAndre Elliott, KPL and Matthews all at the same time) there were simply many more negative plays tracked for Matthews than positives. The amount of big plays he allowed were far greater than the ones he produced. For the sake of objectivity here’re my notes on Matthews’ tape.
• CU game: Matthews makes the first contact but misses the tackle.
  • 2nd snap: Trent Matthews and DeAndre Elliott both let Paul Richardson run free for a long, bomb touchdown. This play appears to be Matthews’ fault, Elliott reads an underneath receiver while in zone coverage and moves up to defend that. Matthews also inches forward instead of reading and staying deep to cover Richardson. Instincts as a center fielder aren’t great; reads the play slowly too often on tape.
  • Colorado’s quarterback scrambles, Matthews gets blocked out of the play, forces QB to get out of bounds but doesn’t free up from blocker to deliver hit (disappointing first couple series to this game).
• Matthews looks stiff staying with receivers on inside routes and having to make sharp adjustments, struggles stopping on a dime and re-starting. Has had instances where he slips on tape and loses footing in these situations, doesn’t look smooth.
• Matthews is very slow to react to a reverse run, Shaq Barrett also misses tackle out on the edge, play goes for big yardage. Ability to read and react was the difference between the play getting stopped for a five to 10-yard gain to it going for 40-plus yards.
• Alabama game: Matthews comes downhill in run support, takes a bad angle and misses the tackle on T.J. Yeldon despite being in position, which leads to a big run. His instincts against the run are better, but his ability to read the play, quickly dissect, fly downhill and deliver the hit is below average. When watching him side by side with Kevin Pierre-Louis it’s night and day.
  • His measurables and tackling production can be deceiving, he isn’t a big hitter and misses a good amount of tackles. His tackles are much more coming in and helping bring down the defender then of the solo variety, big hits, or open field tackles. Instincts tackling in space are below average.
  • Matthews bites inside on the tight end who sits down on his route, this leaves the cornerback with no deep help and leads to an easy Alabama touchdown. Far too many plays like this occur for an evaluator to have confidence in his ability as a free safety playing single deep coverage. Regularly disappoints as the last line of defense.
• KPL and Matthews both double on the same receiver underneath, this leaves the corner in zero coverage and leads to big play score. Again, not necessarily only Matthews’ fault, but as a free safety who’s got good ball skills and is relied on as the deep safety, this doesn’t look good either. Another negative play added to the bunch.
• Torn ACL is certainly going to be an issue and hinder his stock some, the fact that he tore it so late in the season and how this will affect his ability to contribute immediately as a rookie will also become an important factor for him going forward.

Conclusion:

On paper, Matthews has many of the skills that are ideal for a starting NFL free safety. And let’s be clear, it’s not like he’s consistently making mistakes on film otherwise he wouldn’t have been a 50 game starter, produced so many tackles or been a team leader if that was the case. These scouting reports are not done to grade a guy’s collegiate performances, but rather to try and project them at the NFL level, the most elite level of football in the world. Thus, any mistake becomes a worry, especially when these errors occur playing against high-level collegiate competition (a big reason why the CU and Alabama tape are so important).

That’s the concern with Matthews; it could be that the games we studied simply weren’t great games or that his coverage ability and instincts are much better when watching coach’s film. The fact remains that there are more big plays allowed than there are big plays being made and that’s a concern, especially for a free safety who’s supposed to be a reliable last line of defense.

Given his measurables, off-field intangibles like leadership and production, he should at least get a shot at the NFL level. He’ll be required to improve and clean up lots of the mistakes he made at CSU to turn into a productive professional player, however.