Chargers’ Scott Matlock is a two-way player like the NFL hasn’t seen in years

In the modern NFL, players who get significant playing time on both offense and defense are almost unheard of. But Chargers fullback/defensive lineman Scott Matlock is an exception.

Through two games this season, Matlock has played 37 percent of the Chargers’ offensive snaps and 22 percent of the Chargers’ defensive snaps, making him a regular contributor on both sides of the ball like no other NFL player has been in years. (Matlock has also played 56 percent of the Chargers’ special teams snaps.)

Matlock is the first player in five years to play at least two dozen snaps on both offense and defense in a season, and he’s already done that in just two games. Patrick Ricard of the Ravens, who played 342 offensive snaps and 140 defensive snaps in 2019, is the closest thing the NFL has seen to a regular two-way player in recent years, but Matlock is on place to get significantly more snaps than Ricard on both sides of the ball: If Matlock continues at his current pace for a 17-game season, he’ll finish with 400 snaps on offense and 200 snaps on defense, something no NFL player has done since snap counts have been publicly reported.

The only other player in the NFL who has played on both offense and defense this season is Chiefs linebacker Leo Chenal, who played two snaps on offense on Sunday against the Bengals.

Chargers offensive coordinator Greg Roman said he’s been incredibly impressed with how quickly Matlock has taken to playing offense after only playing on defense as a rookie last season.

“Scott has a lot on his plate and it’s amazing how he’s handling it,” Roman said. “I can’t speak enough about how diligently he’s preparing, and he’s getting better every week. How impressive is that? He’s in offensive meetings early this morning, to defensive meetings to special teams meetings, back to the defensive meeting, back to the offensive walk-through. It’s a great testament to him.”

And it’s a throwback to a different time in the NFL, when players rarely left the field. Those times are never coming back, but Matlock is a reminder of what football used to be.