Rookie energizes Dolphins with moment of glory
ATLANTA — It’s extremely unlikely Claudy Mathieu will make the Dolphins’ 53-man roster that’s being finalized as you read this.
Mathieu is hoping he can catch on with the practice squad. And he certainly seems a worthwhile project.
You’ve probably never heard of Mathieu, but follow along. It may be worth it.
Mathieu, it could be argued, was among the bottom players on the roster headed into Thursday night’s preseason finale at Atlanta.
But as it goes in such games, Mathieu was given a chance to play. And late in the second quarter, on a third down, Mathieu made a play that he’ll hold as a memory forever — no matter what his football future holds.
“It’s just since I was a kid, growing up, watching Cam Wake getting sacks ... it just felt real good to finally get my first NFL sack,” Mathieu said in the locker room, long after the Dolphins’ 34-7 victory. “It’s a blessing. I’ve been praying on it, praying on it, and God came
through for me.”
Mathieu, 6-foot-4 and 275 pounds, speed-rushed around the right tackle and dropped a quarterback named Kurt Benkert. Mathieu did a dance. He said he was simulating a Dolphin. It wasn’t great, but it wasn’t bad. The dance. The sack was quite good, actually.
“I came off the ball fast, attacked his outside shoulder, lifted that arm up, then it was over after that,” Mathieu said. “That was all she wrote. The quarterback stepped into me a little bit. Next thing you know he’s on the ground and I’m doing my little Dolphins dance.”
What struck some observers was the exuberant reaction of some Dolphins defensive players on the sideline. They hooted. They hollered. They celebrated for Mathieu, the undrafted rookie from Notre Dame College in suburban Cleveland, who had been through all the same drills throughout the long spring and summer.
“Everyone thought I went to the same school as Durham Smythe,” Mathieu said of the fourth-round pick from the University of Notre Dame. “They said, ‘Oh, Notre Dame! Notre Dame!’ I said, ‘Nope. I don’t know him.’”
Mathieu laughed. But what that on-field moment meant to him — consider he’s behind at least Wake, Robert Quinn, William Hayes, Charles Harris, Andre Branch and Cameron Malveaux on the Miami depth chart — was no joke.
“Shout-out to my mom, Monique, my brothers Gene and Henry, my sister Claudia, and sister Monica,” Mathieu said. “You could say I got a couple texts. They were all watching.”
Mathieu grew up in Boston and Philadelphia but emerged as a sleeper at Notre Dame College of the Mountain East Conference, where last season he posted 14.5 tackles for losses, 8.5 sacks and three forced fumbles.
“No regrets,” he said of his small school experience.
Mathieu was among the last Dolphins to leave the locker room Thursday night. A bit earlier, some veteran teammates had been shouting toward reporters, “Interview Claudy! Claudy, it’s your time to be interviewed!”
Said Quinn, one of the NFL’s top sack artists: “That’s Claudy Mathieu!” Mathieu retorted, without a hint of unease, “I’m here! I got my sack. I’m ready!”
The fourth preseason game means little to so many NFL players. But for Mathieu, whose college games were played in Division II, it meant so much.
“If I don’t make the roster, hopefully I’ll make practice squad,” he said. “I’ll approach it the same way every day. I would continue to work hard and try to get moved up later in the season.”
It’s hard to say what will happen today as the Dolphins trim their roster and begin to finalize a practice squad. But Mathieu will always, always have Atlanta.