Jake Matthews

BIOGRAPHY

Jacob Thomas Matthews was born on February 11, 1992, in Missouri City, Texas. He is an offensive tackle in the National Football League.

He attended Elkins high school; he played for Coached by Robert Crivellari. He was a consensus All-American (Parade, USA Today, SuperPrep, Rivals.com) and first-team all-district and all-greater Houston honoree. He played college football for aggies at Texas A&M University; in 2010 he was named to ESPN.com’s All-Big 12 Conference Freshman team and was an honorable mention All-Big 12 pick. He was one of 10 freshmen to letter for the Aggies, starting the final seven games of the season.

As a sophomore, quickly developed into the cornerstone of the Aggies’ offensive front that allowed just nine sacks in 13 games and set then-school records for total offense (seventh in the nation at 490.2 ypg), passing (291.1 ypg) and scoring (11th nationally at 39.08 ppg) offense. The sophomore delivered 13 touchdown-resulting blocks and 96 key blocks/knockdowns while helping the Aggies rush for 199.2 yards per game.

In 2012, he earned first-team All-American honors from The NFL Draft Report and the Football Writers of America Association, adding second-team accolades from the Walter Camp Football Foundation and third-team recognition from the Associated Press.

As a senior, he was a consensus All-American and a unanimous All-Southeastern Conference first-team selection. He was a recipient of the Bobby Bowden Award, presented for high performance on the field, in class and in the community. The Atlanta Falcons drafted Matthews with the sixth overall pick in the 2014 NFL Draft; he Started 15 games at left tackle during his rookie season in 2014 and blocked for an offense that broke several franchise records.

He started all 16 games at left tackle and blocked for an offense that ranked seventh in the NFL averaging 374.1 yards per game in 2015. Protected Matt Ryan’s blindside as the quarterback became one of four passers to throw for 4,000 yards in each of the last five seasons. Matthews started all 16 games at left tackle, blocking for an offense that set a franchise record with 540 points and averaged 415.8 yards per game in 2016. He started at left tackle and blocked for an offense that set a franchise record with 571 total yards against Carolina (10/2/16) and protected QB Matt Ryan as he became the 19th player in NFL history to throw for 500+ yards in a single game. In 2017, he blocked for an offense that has averaged 364.8 yards and 5.93 yards per play, the third-best mark in the NFL. In 2018 he started at left tackle all 16 games, blocking for an offense that averaged 389.1 yards and 6.16 yards per play, the sixth-best mark in the NFL and was named to his first Pro Bowl. During the 2020 season, Matthews played in all 16 games, allowing only three quarterback sacks, six quarterback hits, and three total penalties on 1,113 offensive snaps. For his 2020 performance, he earned a 75.5 overall Pro Football Focus grade, with an 84.0 grade in pass blocking and a 57.4 grade in run blocking. His pass blocking ranked 9th among all tackles in the NFL and his run blocking ranked 47th. The 75.5 overall grade was the lowest he received since the 2016 season. Matthews has played at least 1,000 snaps every season since 2015.

On March 14, 2022, Matthews signed a three-year, $52.5 million extension with the Falcons.