Whenever I watch a game I get too caught up watching the ball or qb. Just how often does CM III get doubled these days? If it is nearly every play then they have to swallow the $15 mil pill and move on. If he is rarely doubled then redo his contact or let him go. Twins had a nice scenario but I expect his agent will ask for a min of 2 extra years. Probably 3.

---

Btw there is a self serving reason for Clay to resist moving to MLB. Money. As most of you know OLBers make a boat load of money.

Before any new contracts are completed, Clay is # 3 for OLB and # 1 by far at ILB. The 10th highest ILB makes $5.5 you would be down around 30th for OLB. Spotrac.com.

---

His next contract will be signed when he's 32 and he won't play a snap on it 'til he's 33. I doubt the position will be the limiting factor for his contract.

I don't ever remember clay being doubled all the time. He has always gotten chipped by TE or RBs. He has always been a speed and tenacity rusher, not power. a good chip, stopping his momentum and TEs can block him. His specialty was getting around the edge or chasing a broken play.

A two year extension would be OK also, that would just split up the money over more years. Little bigger risk of dead money but not too bad.

---

He was GREAT during the 2010 SB season. Kind of "so-so" since then. To me, more like AJ Hawk then a big time player.

---

His most productive game came without Clay but either way I don't get this. It's not like if Matthews isn't there then nobody is blocking Perry. Perry to be productive still has to beat the guy across from him and get to the QB or shed his block and make a tackle on the RB. The only guy on our team getting doubled with any consistency is Daniels. I don't know why people even assume Clay is getting doubled much. Just watch him get shut down play after play by average LTs, why on earth would any offense be overly worried about him? If anything Clay benefitted from Perry this year. On like 2 or 3 of his sacks the QB was running away from pressure applied by Perry before Clay got him. Clay is missing explosiveness he had at the beginning of his career and he's been missing it for some time now. He wasn't sacrificing for the team going to ILB in 2014 he was just so mediocre off the edge that they were getting the most out of him and it happened to line up nicely with the teams needs.

He should be ILB permanently but he's not worth nearly 12 million there so if he won't restructure then to me he's an easy cut. Think about it this way, if he was a FA how would you feel if Ted signed him to a 12 million dollar deal? Id think that's completely insane.

I agree with you, Steve. It is insane. If Ted gave the money to Peppers this year I don't see how he won't give it to Clay next season. I thought keeping Peppers at his price was insane this year but we did it. All that money for those two? Crazy.

---

When you look at what other players are getting, Clay is a bargain. Unless Clay has an undisclosed injury; he won’t be cut or even approached for a pay cut. But, an extension as brilliantly suggested by capologist PackFanWithTwins is a possibility.

Here’s what you’d have to pay for Clay’s replacement:

Unproven newby option:
In 2015, 2 years ago McPhee signed with Bears for 5 years x 7.75M. In 2013 and 14 he didn’t start a game. He played 28% of snaps in ’13 with 2 sacks and 48% of snaps in ’14 with 7.5 sacks. The cap is 18% higher than when McPhee got his contract, that would adjust McPhee’s contract to about 9.1M. So a risky just about totally unproven newby that played about half the snaps and flashed 7.5 snaps will cost about 9M x 5 in 2017. I’d rather have Clay for 11M x 2 years.

Here’s the top paid OLBs by avg salary and what that same contract would look like if signed in 2017:

Miller 19M per 2016 (21M per adjusted to 2017 cap dollars)

Houston 17M per 2015 (20M per adjusted)

Clay 13.2 M per

Jamie Collins 12.5M per 2017

Kerrigan 11.5M per 2015 (15M per adjusted for 2017 cap and extension)

David 10.05M per 2015 (15M per adjusted for 2017 cap and extension)

Irvin 9.25M per 2016 (10.2M per adjusted)

Jerry Hughes 9M per 2015 (10.6M adjusted)

Of all these guys, other than maybe Kerrigan at 15M, Id rather have Clay at 11M x 2. Plus, heading into new season it’s our weakest position. He played with an AC joint last year, that is TJ Lang-like toughness. And if Clay is healthy he can be as dominant as anyone on this list.

If Clay Matthews is healthy? lol. He'll never stay healthy and when he gets banged up he goes into witness protection. Ever since those hammys started giving out he's been getting his butt kicked off the edge on a majority of his snaps and throwing in a splash play here and there. He hasn't been a consistent threat off the edge in years unless he's facing TJ Clemmings, expecting him to get back to being a high level pass rusher now is unlikely. The only way to justify paying him his contract is by moving him to ILB and he's still overpaid there.

Who would replace him? We need more talent on defense, not less.

We need to suck it up and pay him because we have no other options.