Darrell Bevell sheds light on why Chris Matthews couldn’t stick with Seahawks

RENTON – Back in August, Seahawks offensive coordinator Darrell Bevell spoke at length about a need for more consistency while giving a fairly frank and mostly tepid assessment of wide receiver Chris Matthews.

Bevell had another one on Wednesday, a day after Seattle waived Matthews in favor of another wide receiver, Kevin Smith, who was promoted from the practice squad.

“We just didn’t feel like we got what we were looking for. He’s a very talented player. We love his size, love the catch radius and the things that he can do, but there’s more to it,” Bevell said of Matthews. “You have to be able to fit in and you have to be able to make plays when your opportunities come, you have to be able to understand the offense and do the right thing. All those things together, there just wasn’t enough.”

Seattle’s decision to move on from Matthews wasn’t at all surprising based on his lack of production; he caught only four passes on eight targets over the first nine games while sitting no higher than fourth on the wide-receiver depth chart behind starters Doug Baldwin and Jermaine Kearse as well as rookie Tyler Lockett.

But there was a question as to why he didn’t produce more. After all, Matthews was Seattle’s most physically imposing wide receiver at 6-foot-5 and 218 pounds, and his marvelous performance in the Super Bowl showed how useful that size can be.

Bevell’s comments provided that answer.

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