The Seattle Seahawks have waived receiver and Super Bowl hero Chris Matthews.
As the lone ray of light for the Seattle Seahawks on one of their darkest days, Chris Matthews vowed he wouldn’t be a flash in the pan.
“I’ve always had confidence in my game,” Matthews said a few days after his improbable star turn in Super Bowl XLIX. “So what I did in the Super Bowl doesn’t change anything or make me feel any different.”
The 6-foot-5, 218-pound Matthews appeared close to becoming maybe the most unlikely MVP in Super Bowl history before the ill-fated second-and-1 play that sent the Seahawks home, losers to the Patriots. Matthews had four catches for 109 yards and a touchdown in the game Feb. 1 in Glendale, Ariz.
Though the catches were the first four of Matthews’ career, they were enough for the Seahawks to proclaim him as the possible solution to filling the offense’s big-receiver role that has been something of a black hole for years.
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“We go into this camp thinking that Chris is going to be a big guy and the big receiver in this offense,’’ Seahawks general manager John Schneider said in May. “He is as good as it gets to fill that expectation — we’ll see how he does.’’
The answer arrived Tuesday when the Seahawks released him. To fill his spot on the 53-man roster the Seahawks signed former Washington Husky Kevin Smith off the practice squad. Tuesday was the players’ off day, and no players or coaches were available to comment.
Smith likely will take over many of Matthews’ special-teams duties. That role initially got Matthews onto the active roster in December and in position for his postseason heroics.
But in nine games this season Matthews had just four catches for 54 yards, including one since Oct. 5.
Matthews, who signed with the Seahawks in February 2014 after spending two years in the CFL, initially made an impact with the Seahawks when he recovered an onside kick in the NFC Championship Game, maybe the most improbable of plays as the Seahawks pulled off a most improbable comeback to beat the Packers 28-22 in overtime.
His NFC Championship Game heroics made him a popular subject during Super Bowl week, particularly his story of having worked at a shoe store for a time last fall between stints on the Seahawks’ practice squad.
The Seahawks then devised a package of plays for Matthews in the Super Bowl. The Seahawks figured New England cornerbacks Darrelle Revis and Brandon Browner would cover Doug Baldwin and Jermaine Kearse, leaving Matthews on one of the Patriots’ smaller cornerbacks.
He had two catches in the first half, including an 11-yard touchdown with six seconds left in the second quarter to tie the score at 14 at halftime. He had a 45-yarder in the third quarter to set up another field goal before the Patriots then moved Browner onto him.
But Matthews got off to a slow start in training camp, and in mid-August offensive coordinator Darrell Bevell said, “I just want to see him show up every day. And that’s what I talk to him about every day. We don’t want to have a situation where we come out here and he has one good day and then he disappears for two or three and then, ‘Oh, there he is again, he’s out here.’ We want to make him make himself be known.’’
He suffered a shoulder injury covering a punt in the preseason opener against Denver. Matthews recovered to earn a regular role as a reserve in the receiving rotation — he played 134 snaps, 22.9 percent of offensive plays.
But he made little impact on a team that has struggled offensively.
Smith, who initially signed with the Seahawks in June 2014 and was re-signed in February, has been on the practice squad all season. He was one of the stars of the preseason, recording six catches for 61 yards, two tackles on special teams and two kickoff returns for 81 yards with a long of 54.
Smith had 72 catches for 1,059 yards and four touchdowns at UW and joins a receiving corps undergoing some change in recent weeks. Ricardo Lockette is out for the season after a neck injury suffered against Dallas and was replaced on the roster by Paul Richardson. Richardson, though, suffered what coach Pete Carroll called “a pulled hamstring’’ against Arizona, and his status is certain. That leaves Seattle with three apparently healthy receivers who have played this season — Jermaine Kearse, Baldwin and Tyler Lockett.
Shortly after being released, Matthews tweeted: “I know that nothing is easy, and I don’t expect it to happen now but GOD has always had my back and he won’t stop now. #Blessed’’