comparing Perry and Matthews

Clay Matthews through four games in 2009: 150 snaps, one sack, three hurries, two stops (tackle that constitutes a negative play for the offense), one forced fumble, touchdown, seven tackles, three missed tackles.
Nick Perry through four games in 2012: 146 snaps, one sack, seven hurries, five stops, 15 tackles, zero missed tackles.

Hard to compare them from rookie vs rookie standpoint. The team personnel and supporting cast was different from then and now......but, from those stats you posted, if perry has time to develope and given that he has coach greene to help him and matthews to learn from, I'd say he has a bright future in the green bay uniform.

We really need Perry to become our other solid OLB. We have lots of positions to fill in the next couple of years with guys like Pickett, Woodson and Saturday nearing the end of their careers, not to mention the prospect of losing Jennings.

I like this thread, as I have been wondering what we should be expecting from Perry at this point. He's not contributing the way that I (and a lot of other people, evidently) had hoped and it seems that the improvement on defense is more due to Pickett having a good year, Williams being back to normal, Sheilds picking it up, Woodson being a much better fill in for Collins than Peprah was and Hayward and McMillan etc doing well in our nickel and dime packages. Perry/Walden haven't seemed to do much and neither has Worthy. Of course, it's rare for a rookie to come out smoking, so we should have expect that, I guess.

Perry get's stymied too often at the point of attack and seems lost in pass defense. Walden got most of the snaps last game. Maybe he will improve but I'm betting his end of year stats won't come close to Clay's.

I have yet to see the flash I saw from Clay his rookie year. I was in MN when he ran down AP and punched the ball out, even before that I could sense something special about him but that was the moment I was like whoa hes got it. JJ watt last year started very slow but you still saw flashes. I am not saying Perry wont be great, I just havent seen it on film yet.

Here's a couple of players names I'll throw at you Kitten who had excellent first years in addition to Clay. I'm sure there are more. Brian Cushing, Aldon Smith, Von Miller, Ryan Kerrigan, Lavonte David (off to good start), Demarcus Ware, Patrick Willis, Brian Orakpo.

Agent P has been pretty good.
Walden has been much improved.
And there's Dezman Moses too.

I love Perry, and like all 4 of em.
We're good there.

I'm hoping that one of them can become at least a second rate pass rusher to take some heat off of CM3, but none of them have shown it yet in games. It'd be nice to have a Harrison/Woodley type combo, but none of them have come close enough to CM3 to make it anything like a "dual threat" at this point. I'm keeping my fingers crossed...

Perry is being asked to play a different position than he played in college, that is hard adjustment to make. He has to learn to read the play better, drop into coverage if needed, and to rush in a different style.

Dont expect instant results from rookies, they have a TON of info to absorb and the game moves at a light speed pace from what they saw in college. We as Americans want everything NOW, instant coffee, fast food, fast cars etc.... we need to learn that not everything comes fast. People need to know that young players need time to develope into their role and make an identity for themselves, perry is still searching for that. By the middle of next saeson, I really think those that doubt him will be eating their words. TT didn't draft him because he saw a sugar coated turd, he got picked due to his performance......it will develope, bet on it.

That is the difference between the US and Germany.

You want things right now, Germans want things already yesterday.....

20 Years old. 12 Years Experience.

if he has 5 sacks and we finish in at least the top 15 in defense i would definitely chalk it up as a first good year for him. Theres not alot of von millers or Aldon smiths running around, but it sure would be nice if he turned out to be one of those guy's. I'd like to see Capers allow him to put his hand in the dirt more on passing downs.

There are more names than Von Miller and Aldon smith on this list and I'm pretty sure I missed a few.

So far the other players on defense will be the reason if we finish in the top 15.

I agree its foolish make any kind of a determination about what kind of player Perry will be at least until we’re well into his second year. McCarthy and others often refer to the significant jump in performance players make from year one to year two. Because Perry has had to acclimate to a very different position than he played in college, that jump should be significant.

I don’t expect Perry ever to mirror Clay’s style of play: While strong, Clay emphasizes his speed and quickness. While fast, I expect Perry’s strength to always be strength (as funny as that sounds). But he doesn’t have to emulate Clay to be hugely successful.

BTW, we haven’t heard much about Perry’s wrist injury – that could be holding him back some. Certainly OLB has been upgraded and that has a lot to do with Walden’s improved play. Zombo has his work cut out for him to return to the active roster.