Can Carson Schwesinger be the next Clay Matthews?

Editor's note: Tony Grossi is a Cleveland Browns and NFL analyst for TheLandOnDemand.com and 850 ESPN Cleveland. He has covered the Browns since 1984.

Carson Schwesinger, the Browns’ new linebacker, hasn’t played a down in a game yet. But he already reminds me of Clay Matthews, the linebacker from the 1970s, ’80 and ‘90s who ranks as one of the franchise’s all-time greats.

It’s more than the sandy-brown hair and the SoCal, surfer-boy looks.

They’re both from the same, affluent area in Southern California.

In fact, Schwesinger played his final two years of high school football at NFL-factory Oaks Christian HS in Westlake Village, CA. Clay actually served there as defensive coordinator in the 2000s, coaching his youngest son, Casey, when he couldn’t get the game out of his system after playing 19 NFL seasons.

“I know the name. I mean, it’s up in there,” Schwesinger said to me, nodding to the Browns’ indoor facility, after a recent stifling training camp practice. “But my time [as an NFL fan growing up] was a little bit more with his son [Clay III] playing [for the Green Bay Packers].

“But that was always a cool story, too, just because of a lot of similarities there, with him being a walk-on where he went and playing one year and being able to put himself in a good position and being a great player in the league.”

OK, so follow the eerie similarities here.

Clay III, son of the Browns’ Clay Matthews, was a walk-on at USC and played on special teams for three years before breaking out as a starting linebacker in his fourth year.

Schwesinger was a walk-on at UCLA and played on special teams for three years before breaking out as a starting linebacker in his fourth year.

There’s another similarity between Schwesinger and the older Clay Matthews, too.

When he joined the Browns as a first-round pick in 1978, No. 12 overall, Clay measured 6-2 and weighed 245 pounds.

Schwesinger came to the Browns via the first pick in the second round, No. 33 overall. At the NFL Combine, he measured 6-2 ½ and weighed 242 pounds.

Brains and brawn

The Browns’ Clay Matthews was a remarkably diverse career linebacker, at times playing every unique linebacker position in coach Marty Schottenheimer’s 3-4 defensive scheme.

In a season when Schottenheimer lacked pass rushers, Matthews was designated the primary edge rusher. When Schottenheimer lacked a tackling machine, Matthews lined up inside and became the team’s leading tackler. When Schottenheimer had nobody else to cover backs and tight ends, Matthews was the coverage linebacker. He never left the field, no matter which role he filled in a given season.

Matthews was always the Browns’ “quarterback” on defense. He played before the time an NFL defensive player was allowed to receive defensive signals from the sideline in a specially equipped helmet, a la the quarterback. Matthews would be wearing that “green dot” helmet if he played today.

Schwesinger is that guy already. He’s been given the responsibility of relaying the calls from coordinator Jim Schwartz to his older teammates. It’s very unusual for a rookie to be entrusted with that task.

A bioengineer major at UCLA, Schwesinger possesses the rare combination of football intelligence and brute physicality – like Clay Matthews.

Matthews used to complete the New York Times daily crossword puzzle every day at his locker – in ink. He once told me he secretly longed to be an offensive coordinator because his mind was loaded with creative, unusual plays on offense.

At the NFL Combine, Schwesinger said his role model was former Carolina Panthers linebacker Luke Kuechly, a future Hall of Famer.

“I think everybody knows about his cerebral-ness and his athleticism, but also, you know, the second he got on the field there was a ‘flip that switch’ and he became a different type of guy,” Schwesinger said. “[There was] violence and tenacity in his play.”

Linebackers are known for their physicality, but the great ones also play the game cerebrally, too.

“I would say linebacker, down the middle of your defense, I think you do have a lot of cerebral players, whether it’s the safeties or the middle linebackers,” said coach Kevin Stefanski. “You’re at the nerve center of everything we do defensively. So you do have to be intelligent, you do have to have great understanding of football because you’re typically getting guys lined up, you’re making calls, you’re making adjustments. And Carson has that ability. I mean, he’s a cerebral kid.

“But it is football, so the physical aspect of it is not too far from the evaluation either.”

In his only season as a starting linebacker at UCLA, Schwesinger led the nation among FBS players with 90 solo tackles. His 7.5 solo tackles per game were the most in the FBS since 2020.

Bam bam

“Don't get me wrong, it's a physical position,” Schwesinger said. “You've got to be willing to go in there and you've got to want to hit people and you've got to have a little bit of a screw loose on the field.”

At the Combine in Indianapolis, Schwesinger said he was most proud of never giving less than 100% on the field.

“I believe that when you turn on the tape, there's really never a play where I'm not going 100%,” he said in February. “You might lose one rep here or there, and you learn from it after film, but my goal is to really, whether I win or lose, I'm going to be doing it at 100%.”

To me, Schwesinger affirmed, “Every time I'm on the field, that's the ultimate goal. People are going to make mistakes. Things are going to happen. But for me, I want to be be making them full speed, if I’m going to make them. And regardless of whatever the play is, I should be going 100%.”

That’s reminiscent of Matthews, too.

In seven Browns training camp practices so far, two plays on defense have stood out – other than Myles Garrett’s constant occupation in the offensive backfield.

On the first day of pads, under the limitation of one ‘thud’ on a ball-carrier and no tackling, Schwesinger leveled running back Dylan Sampson to the ground with his right forearm. The defense roared its approval, and even running backs coach Duce Staley allowed the next day, “Good job.”

“That was a fun one,” Schwesinger said.

Two days later, in Stefanski’s first live tackling-to-the-ground period in six seasons as Browns coach, Schwesinger’s loud pop and wrap-up takedown of Sampson again was the defensive highlight of the day.

I know it’s way too early to make any projections on Schwesinger’s career. I won’t say he can match the impact Matthews made in 16 incredible seasons on some of the best non-championship Browns teams in franchise history.

But I surely haven’t seen a linebacker like him drafted by the Browns in the expansion era.