UDFA Scouting Report Series – Matt Rotheram

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This past season the Green Bay Packers commissioned a study to see how many snaps that UDFA’s played during the Ted Thompson era. The total that they came up with was 77,079 snaps; almost 23,000 more than any other team in the NFL. Over the course of the next few weeks I’ll be breaking down five undrafted free agents that have the best shot of making the Packers this season: LaDarius Gunter, John Crockett, Jermauria Rasco, Matt Rotheram and James Vaughters.

Part 1: LaDarius Gunter

Part 2: John Crockett

Part 3: Jermauria Rasco

Part 4: James Vaughters

Part 5: Matt Rotheram (Today)

Today we take a look at Matt Rotheram, RG, Pittsburgh:

Physical Traits

Height: 6’5”
Weight: 345
40 yard: 5.42
Bench: 22 reps
Broad: 104”
3-Cone: 7.63
20ss: 4.53

Alright, before we even get started, tell me that Matt Rotheram doesn’t just sound and look like a Green Bay Packer. You cannot tell me that he wouldn’t look perfect at RG right next to Bryan Bulaga. There’s something about Rotheram that just screams green and gold. Whether he can actually end up playing for Green Bay and not just look the part is another story altogether. Of all the prospects that I’ve watched so far, Rotheram is the player who I give the best odds to actually making the team. The Packers will generally keep 9-10 offensive linemen in any given season and and after the top seven (Bakhtiari, Sitton, Lindsley, Lang, Bulaga, Tretter & Barclay) the field is wide open. If Rotheram can maximize his strengths and minimize his weaknesses, he’ll be the next in a long line of UDFA’s to make the opening 53 man roster.

Strengths

  • Gets the Job Done
  • Sneaky Athletic
  • Excels in Screen Game

Weaknesses

  • Lacks Strength/Athleticism
  • Waist Bender
  • Versatility

As always, we’ll start by looking at Rotheram’s strengths:

Gets the Job Done

Ok, this isn’t exactly a known scouting term, but it’s exactly what I came away most impressed with about Rotheram. It’s not always pretty and it’s certainly not always technically sound, but the vast majority of the time it’s successful. He reminds me a bit of Mark Tauscher when he first came to Green Bay. A lot of the knocks on Tauscher are the same you hear about Rotheram and just like Tauscher didn’t win any body building awards or wasn’t always the player that scouts were in love with, he always got the job done. Here were some examples:

*In the following videos, Rotheram is playing RG and is #74. These videos were originally intended for RT TJ Clemmings*





Sneaky Athletic

As you’ll read as part of my weaknesses in a moment, Rotheram isn’t the worlds greatest athlete; but at guard he won’t have to be. He actually surprised me with some of the plays that he had on tape for just how “sneaky athletic” he was at times:



Excels in Screen Game

This is just one example of at least four in the games that I watched that Rotheram was able to disengage his defender at exactly the right time, get down field and take down a defensive back 20 yards later:




And now for the weaknesses:

Lacks Strength/Athleticism

We’ve seen already that Rotheram can be a bit athletic at times, but where he struggles is against players with a quick first step or when he has to make up a great deal of space in a short period of time. There are other times in which he’s just clumsy or awkward:






Waist Bender

If you want to quickly get cut by an NFL team, bend at the waist when you are trying to block. It’s one of the biggest red flags that an offensive linemen can display and Rotheram will have plays where you see him get lazy with his technique and start to bend at the waist instead of using his lower body; specifically his knees. These may seem like minor examples but even a little waist bending can get a player in the offensive line coach’s dog house.



Versatility

There isn’t exactly a video to show you Rotheram’s lack of versatility but it will definitely hurt his ability to make the team. The Packers have long been a team that values versatility on the offensive line and to be active as a backup linemen it’s absolutely essential. Let’s say David Bakhtiari were to go down on Sunday and Rotheram was the next linemen in off the bench. Rotheram has zero chance at being able to play LT in the NFL, so instead of inserting a player at LT and keeping the rest of the line as-is, the Packers would be forced to move Bulaga to LT, TJ Lang to RT, and Rotheram to RG. In this scenario the Packers’ are lucky that Bulaga has experience playing LT or they could really be out of luck. Rotheram is strictly a RG who could probably play LG in a pinch and in an extreme emergency pretend to be a RT. His lack of athleticism makes him a guard only and that will hurt him come cutdown time.

Even with Rotheram’s lack of versatility and his propensity to bend at the waist, he was the best undrafted free agent of the five that I’ve watched on tape. While I don’t think he’d be ready to start a game at RG week 1, I think over the course of time he could become an adequate starting RG in the NFL. I expect him to be a lock for the practice squad and have a real shot at making the roster. Let’s hope he can be the next Mark Tauscher and be the guy who gets the job done regardless of how he looks doing it.

Thank you for reading. Andy Herman is a staff writer for Titletown Sound Off. You can follow him on Twitter @SconnieSports. For even more Packers content, follow us on Twitter and Like us on Facebook.

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