Matt Rotheram’s football career began in the third grade. He became an All-Ohio Division 1 performer for North Olmsted high school. For what high school stats are worth, he was credited with 65 pancake blocks as a senior. He was rated as one of the nation’s top 30 offensive guard prospects by Scout.com and Rivals.com. He took a scholarship at Pitt, where he studied communications and higher education management.

Rotheram redshirted his first year with the team, before starting games at right guard and right tackle in his first active season. He flipped back and forth between the two for the 2012 and 2013 seasons, starting every regular season game for the Panthers from 2012-2014 along their offensive line. He finished his collegiate career with a second team All-ACC selection by the coaches.

Matt Rotheram’s Journey Through the NFL

Rotheram began his professional career as an undrafted free agent with the Green Bay Packers. Rotheram is a plodding interior lineman with slow feet, but a quick mind. He impressed in camp but was unable to make the final cut down to the 53 man roster. The team was high enough on him to increase his practice squad salary in the middle of the year as motivation for not signing with another team. In 2016 Rotheram failed to take the step necessary to lock down a roster spot and found himself on the practice squad again. Before the season ended he had been on the Packers, Eagles, and finally the Lions practice squads.

He has come back for a full offseason opportunity with the team in 2017. Rotheram is a 6’5″ 325lb lineman with slow feet, but impressive power. It is difficult to imagine him being successful in the Lions offense because of their reliance on zone blocking. He is quick to diagnose his responsibility, but just not quick enough to get there. With five virtual locks on the Lions training camp roster, Rotheram likely needs a rash of injuries to break into the league’s active player group.