Scott
Matlock.
Scott
Matlock.
Boise St.
"A five-year Boise State anchor who won with hand strength and leverage instead of burst, and whose real NFL value turned out to be how many different jobs a 300-pound football player could hold."Pre-draft read
A thick, high-effort interior lineman who lined up from 3-technique to a shaded nose in Boise State's four-man front and won with leverage and hand strength rather than first-step quickness. He keeps a wide base, works his pads under the blocker's chest and stacks single blocks instead of getting displaced.
Rush production came from persistence and inside counters more than bend or burst, so sacks arrived in phases and vanished against quicker sets. He is a better run defender than pass rusher, holding gaps on early downs and chasing screens with real urgency for his size, and the separator is the flexibility that let him block kicks, catch a touchdown as a jumbo tight end and post 29 bench reps.
Gap-attacking four-man front with a rotation deep enough that he never carries an every-down load, ideally paired with a staff comfortable using heavy personnel on offense
Year 1: fourth or fifth interior lineman at 15-25 early-down snaps a game plus core field-goal block work. Ceiling: a 400-snap run-down rotational piece, or the conversion path to a blocking fullback that actually happened.
A light, penetration-only nickel front that asks its interior linemen to win one-on-one as third-down rushers, or a roster with no special-teams or heavy-personnel outlet to justify a 300-pound reserve.
His value was always about how many jobs he could hold rather than how well he did any single one; the fullback conversion is the logical endpoint of that profile, not an accident.
Scott Matlock - BERSERKER Defensive Tackle | 2023 NFL Draft Target
Pre-draft film breakdown of his interior tape at Boise State, with the hand strength and gap-holding reps that defined the evaluation.
Scott Matlock hits 29 bench reps, impresses at Boise State Pro Day
Pro Day footage of the team-best 29-rep bench press that moved him up boards ahead of the 2023 draft.
Fullback Scott Matlock 2025
His work as the Chargers' starting fullback, the role that turned a sixth-round defensive lineman into a multi-year contributor.
A five-year Boise State program player who grew from a two-game freshman into the anchor of the Broncos' defensive line, Matlock is an evaluation that lives on tape and traits rather than gaudy numbers. He started every game he played across his last three seasons, worked through the whole front, and held gaps so linebackers could run free.
The production shape is honest: a 7.0-sack, 7.5-TFL junior year that flashed the disruptive ceiling, then a senior season where the sacks fell to 2.5 while his tackle total climbed to a team-leading 49 among linemen and his seven quarterback hurries paced the roster. Mountain West competition was the obvious caveat, and so was the rush plan: he beats guards who let him get hands on them, not tackles who can slide. The flags were burst off the snap and the missing counter once the bull rush stalled.
Boards had him as a late Day 3 rotational body, and his Pro Day moved the temperature more than any game did, with a team-best 29 bench reps in front of scouts from 30 clubs. At 200 overall the Chargers were not buying a starter; they were buying a heavy, versatile, self-motivated football player with special-teams value and enough flexibility that a creative staff could find snaps for him somewhere.
- 01
Play strength
He anchors against single blocks with a wide base and heavy hands, and rarely gets moved off his gap even when a guard gets into his chest first.
- 02
Positional versatility
Boise State used him from nose shade to five-technique, and he handled all of it without needing the alignment simplified for him.
- 03
Field-goal block value
He blocked a PAT against BYU and a field goal against Colorado State in 2020 alone, giving a special-teams coordinator an immediate, tangible role.
- 04
Motor and chase
For a 300-pound interior lineman he pursues screens and perimeter runs with genuine urgency and finishes plays well outside his own gap.
- 05
Functional testing strength
Twenty-nine bench reps led Boise State's Pro Day and matched the grip strength that shows up on tape when he detaches from blockers.
- 01
First-step quickness
He is late off the snap against quick-set interior pass sets, and the delay costs him the half-man advantage his rush depends on.
- 02
Pass-rush plan
When the bull rush stalls he lacks a reliable counter, and the 2.5-sack senior year reflects how easily quality guards could sit on the one move.
- 03
Level of competition
The disruptive tape came against Mountain West interiors, and the physical edge he enjoyed there would not carry into an NFL pocket.
- 04
Sub-package fit
There is little evidence he can win as a designated third-down rusher, which caps him as an early-down body on a defense that rotates.
| Yr | Team | G | Tkl | Sk | Int | PD | FF |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2018 | Boise State | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 2019 | Boise State | 12 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 2020 | Boise State | 7 | 22 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 2021 | Boise State | 12 | 40 | 7 | 0 | 1 | 1 |
| 2022 | Boise State | 13 | 49 | 2.5 | 0 | 1 | 0 |
| Career | — | 46 | 113 | 11.5 | 0 | 2 | 1 |
2020, 2021 and 2022 verified line by line on cfbstats.com (Boise State team 66, player 1094041): 2020 7 G, 22 tackles, 4.5 TFL, 2.0 sacks, 0 PBU, 0 forced fumbles, 2 blocked kicks; 2021 12 G, 40 tackles, 7.5 TFL, 7.0 sacks, 1 PBU, 1 forced fumble, 1 blocked kick, 1 fumble return for 2 yards; 2022 13 G, 49 tackles, 6.0 TFL, 2.5 sacks, 1 PBU, 7 quarterback hurries. cfbstats does not archive Boise State's 2018 or 2019 pages, so those rows come from his official Boise State biography: 2018 two appearances with no categories published (left null, not zero) and 2019 twelve appearances with two shared tackles and half a tackle for loss. Starts for 2018 and 2019 are null because the bio never credits him with one, so the career start total of 32 covers only the three verified seasons. Documented discrepancy: the official bio credits him with 41 tackles and 8.5 TFL in 2021 where cfbstats has 40 and 7.5, and this profile follows cfbstats. Career figures are the sum of the verified season rows: 46 games, 113 tackles, 18.5 TFL and 11.5 sacks. Interceptions, passes defended, forced fumbles and fumble recoveries for the two unarchived seasons are null rather than zero.
A dash means the figure is not published by a source we trust — never a zero we invented.
Late-round Mountain West interior body who survives on strength, effort and special-teams reps rather than rush production.
The blocking-fullback outcome Matlock grew into, minus the receiving polish and the special-teams captaincy.
Heavy-handed rotational tackle who never converts practice-squad strength into a stable game-day role.
Everything above is the pre-draft evaluation. This section is what actually happened — updated year over year.
The Chargers used him as a reserve defensive lineman as a rookie in 2023 — 12 games, 266 defensive snaps, 15 tackles, no starts — and that looked like the ceiling until Jim Harbaugh's staff arrived. In 2024 the coaching change rewired his career: he was listed as the starting fullback on the Week 1 depth chart, played all 17 games with 10 starts, logged 362 offensive snaps against just 137 on defense, caught four passes and still collected his only NFL sack. In 2025 the conversion completed itself. He played 16 games with eight starts, 334 offensive snaps and only 18 on defense, caught four more passes and scored his first NFL touchdown while logging 153 snaps on special teams.
In hindsight this is what a good sixth-round pick actually looks like, even if it is nothing like the projection. Nobody drafting him at 200 was writing 'starting fullback' on the card, and the honest read is that his defensive-line traits — strong hands, no burst — were never going to survive an NFL rotation. What survived was the football player: heavy, willing, coachable, valuable on four special-teams units and durable enough to play 45 of a possible 50 games in three years. The Chargers found the version of him that works instead of forcing the one they drafted, and that flexibility is the whole reason he is still on the roster in his fourth season.