Matthew
Butler.
Matthew
Butler.
Tennessee· 6'4"· 297 lb· 5.00s 40
Butler is a 6-foot-3 7/8, 297-pound interior lineman who plays with relentless motor. He fires off the ball low, works half a man and pushes the pocket from the three-technique, and the 34-inch vertical shows up in how quickly he gets his pads underneath a guard.
He is a penetrator, not an anchor. Give him a single gap to attack and he creates problems, which is how he collected 8.5 tackles for loss and five sacks in his final season. Ask him to two-gap and the picture sours: at 297 pounds with seventeen bench reps he gets displaced by double teams and loses ground on down blocks. The pass rush is effort and leverage rather than moves, and a 7.89 three-cone explains why he rarely counters when the first push is absorbed.
One-gap attacking four-man front that lines him at three-technique, gives him a single gap to shoot and rotates him heavily so the motor stays fresh on passing downs.
Year 1: rotational interior rusher on passing downs. Ceiling: starting three-technique in an attacking front with heavy rotation.
A two-gap 3-4 front that asks him to hold the point against double teams and control two gaps on early downs.
The effort is a real trait; it just needs a gap assignment behind it.
Matthew Butler Highlights
Pre-draft cut-up of his senior season at Tennessee, built around interior penetration.
Matthew Butler - Vols DL (Mississippi State week)
Single-game footage against SEC interior blocking.
Matthew Butler Highlights | Welcome to the Las Vegas Raiders
Draft-day reel assembled after Las Vegas selected him 175th overall.
Butler came out of Garner Magnet in North Carolina after a senior season with 96 tackles and 26 sacks, and he committed to Tennessee. What followed was five years and three head coaches — Butch Jones, Jeremy Pruitt and Josh Heupel — inside a program in near-constant transition.
The development curve was slow but honest. He played eight games as a freshman in 2017 and nine as a sophomore with four and thirteen tackles respectively, then found his footing as a junior in 2019 with 45 tackles, three tackles for loss and 2.5 sacks across thirteen games. The 2020 season produced 43 tackles in ten games, and his final year was the best of the run: 47 tackles, 8.5 tackles for loss, five sacks, seven quarterback hurries and a forced fumble in thirteen games. Career line: 152 tackles, 16.5 tackles for loss and 9.5 sacks across 52 games with 25 starts.
The workout said the same thing the tape did. A 5.00 forty and a 34-inch vertical are fine for the position, but seventeen bench reps and a 7.89 three-cone at 297 pounds flag both the play strength and the ability to redirect. Las Vegas took him 175th overall as a rotational interior rusher.
- 01
Motor
plays through the whistle on every snap, chasing plays down the line and finishing reps that most interior linemen quit on.
- 02
First-step quickness
fires low out of his stance and beats guards to the gap, the trait behind his 8.5 tackles for loss as a senior.
- 03
Senior production
47 tackles, five sacks and seven quarterback hurries against an SEC schedule in his final season.
- 04
Leverage
natural pad level under blockers, which lets a 297-pound tackle push the pocket against bigger interior linemen.
- 05
Durability and experience
52 career games and 25 starts across five seasons under three different coaching staffs.
- 01
Play strength
seventeen bench reps at 297 pounds, and double teams displace him off the spot rather than getting stalemated.
- 02
Anchor against the run
gives ground on down blocks and cannot hold a gap when an offense runs directly at him.
- 03
Pass rush counters
wins with effort and leverage rather than a plan, so blockers who absorb the first push control the rep.
- 04
Redirect
a 7.89 three-cone and 4.81 shuttle, meaning he cannot change course once a play moves away from his initial path.
— — — positional median (p50)
- 40 yd
- 5.00sp50
- Vertical
- 32inp50
- Broad jump
- 112inp50
- Three-cone
- 7.89sp50
- Shuttle
- 4.81sp50
- Bench
- 17repp50
| Yr | Team | G | Tkl | Sk | Int | PD | FF |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2017 | Tennessee | 8 | 4 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 2018 | Tennessee | 9 | 13 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 2019 | Tennessee | 13 | 45 | 2.5 | 0 | 2 | 0 |
| 2020 | Tennessee | 10 | 43 | 2 | 0 | 1 | 1 |
| 2021 | Tennessee | 13 | 47 | 5 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| Career | — | 53 | 152 | 9.5 | 0 | 3 | 2 |
Season lines come from the Sports-Reference participation and defensive log, with bowl games included in 2019 and 2021, and they sum exactly to the career row: 152 tackles, 16.5 tackles for loss, 9.5 sacks, three pass breakups and two forced fumbles. The 2020 and 2021 figures are independently confirmed by cfbstats, which also credits him with four quarterback hurries in 2020 and seven in 2021. The games column adds to 53 while his own program lists 52 career games alongside 25 starts; the one-game discrepancy is left visible rather than silently adjusted. Fumble recoveries are zero in every published season.
A dash means the figure is not published by a source we trust — never a zero we invented.
Depth defensive tackle who cycles between active rosters and practice squads for several seasons.
Rotational interior lineman whose motor and quickness earn a long run of meaningful defensive snaps.
Undersized penetrating tackle who runs out of roster spots when the play strength never catches up.
Everything above is the pre-draft evaluation. This section is what actually happened — updated year over year.
Butler has spent four years as the last man on a defensive line. He debuted in Week 3 of his rookie season against Tennessee and appeared in six games. Las Vegas waived him on August 29, 2023, and re-signed him to the practice squad, promoting him to the active roster on January 6, 2024. The sequence repeated in 2024: waived on August 27, back on the practice squad, signed to the active roster on October 10.
He re-signed with the Raiders on March 26, 2025, was waived on May 12 and claimed by Miami the next day. The Dolphins re-signed him on March 12, 2026, then released him at final cuts on August 30. Through the 2024 season he had accumulated 27 tackles and half a sack across his NFL career, spread over parts of three seasons in which he was activated and deactivated more often than he played. The motor and the effort translated exactly as scouted; the play strength never did, and for an interior lineman asked to hold a gap against NFL guards that is the difference between a rotation spot and a permanent place on the roster bubble.