CLEVELAND -- In November, former Cleveland Browns linebacker Clay Matthews was named one of 25 semifinalists for the Pro Football Hall of Fame.
On Tuesday, the Browns stated their case for their former star.
In a video posted to Twitter, several of Matthews' former teammates, as well as Cleveland interim head coach Gregg Williams, can be seen making their pitches for the 4-time Pro Bowler. Spliced between are Matthews' highlights and Hall of Fame credentials, including the 1,595 career tackles (1,561 solo), 69.5 sacks, 16 interceptions and 27 forced fumbles he accumulated over the course of his 19-year career -- 16 seasons of which were spent with the Browns.
"Clay was a dominant player that you had to offensively take note of at all times," said Williams, who coached against Matthews during his time as an assistant with the Houston Oilers. "His ability to violently – and I mean violently – crush the pocket when he rushed the passer.
"There are some really good examples of some good cut-ups of him, too, of how he was on taking the ball away in the pocket and some of the plays that he did, but then he could play pass coverage. He did some really good things with his hand skills in pass coverage on making quarterbacks think that he was in rush, but he wasn’t; he was dropping."
Added former Browns defensive back Ray Ellis: "There's no doubt in my mind, Clay's a Hall of Famer. I don't know why he's not in."
"Clay had what we called a motor," said Dan Fike. "You really weren't quite sure which way he was going if you were doing pass pro(tection) against him. He kind of had that little slip, slide, pause, move -- and then all of a sudden, he'd explode."
This marks the third time that Matthews, who has been Hall of Fame eligible since 2001, has made the semifinalist round, having previously done so in 2012 and 2017. The next step for him to be enshrined in Canton will be to make the list of 15 finalists, which will be revealed on Jan. 3. The Pro Football Hall of Fame Class of 2019 will then be selected the night prior to the Super Bowl.
This year's class will likely include first-time nominees Champ Bailey, Tony Gonzalez and Ed Reed. Williams, meanwhile, believes Matthews deserves to be right there with them.
"I really do believe he has those type of credentials," Williams said.
