A former Alabama prep star’s NFL place is opened by an injury to an Auburn graduate.
After recovering from a mishandled punt and making a special teams stop, Wooten left Sunday’s 27-13 Carolina defeat to the Indianapolis Colts due to an ankle injury.
Wooten won’t be able to return to the Panthers’ active roster until he has missed at least four games. However, it’s likely that he won’t be out for that long.
Frank Reich, the coach of Carolina, stated on Tuesday that Wooten’s injury “probably will be season-ending based on the report I heard this morning.” “It is kind of important.”
As one of Carolina’s main special teams players, Wooten has 177 plays in eight games this season, including 47 defensive snaps in two games.
When Wooten was signed by the Panthers on October 17th, off the practice squad of the Arizona Cardinals, he played in nine games and saw 145 special teams plays. Wooten was a rookie who was not selected by Arizona last season.
When Carolina plays the Chicago Bears on Thursday night, Matthews will be able to participate. On October 31, 2021, he made his most recent appearance in an NFL regular-season game.
Reunited with Carolina coach Frank Reich—who was Philadelphia’s offensive coordinator when Matthews caught 73 catches for 804 yards and three scores in 2016—Matthews signed on to the Panthers practice squad on October 25.
“He would always drop gems when we were together,” Matthews remarked. “He would always find a way to instill the passion of football in the offense. These aren’t only performances that we stage and perform. We’re attempting to comprehend the significance of being able to play this game as well as its why. At the head coach level, he has much more room to grow.
Being with him in this role has been amazing. I feel Frank is the right guy for this, therefore I want to do all in my power to help this team win so I can have this opportunity to work under him. You couldn’t ask for a finer man to coach him; he is simply an incredible man.”
Matthews was a wide receiver back then. He’s a tight end now.
Matthews excelled in both basketball and football at Madison Academy. In 2008, he played a key role in the Mustangs’ AHSAA Class 3A boys’ basketball championship victory and their subsequent two championship game appearances. In football, Matthews was named All-State in 2009 after accumulating 38 touchdowns and 1,061 yards from receptions in 61 games.
Matthews set career SEC records at Vanderbilt with 262 catches for 3,759 yards.
Before being traded by the Eagles to the Buffalo Bills during training camp in 2017, Matthews had spent his first three NFL seasons with Philadelphia, where he had caught 225 receptions for 2,673 yards and 19 touchdowns.
Since the deal, Matthews has struggled with injuries, and in 2021 he switched to a tight end position. With the Bills, Eagles, and San Francisco 49ers since 2017, Matthews has 30 games with 49 catches for 615 yards and three touchdowns.
Following a knee injury at training camp, Matthews was placed on injured reserve by San Francisco for the entirety of the previous season.
