Matthew
Bergeron.
Matthew
Bergeron.
Syracuse· 6'5"· 318 lb
"A left tackle by address and a guard by temperament: the whole evaluation was deciding which of those two facts you believed, and Atlanta answered it before he ever took an NFL snap."Pre-draft read
Four-year Syracuse starter who lined up at left tackle in the ACC but profiles inside the moment he changes spots. Bergeron plays from a wide, heavy base with hands that arrive together, and the first trait on tape is contact balance: he absorbs the jolt, resets his feet and keeps working the block. In the run game he is a displacer, not a positioner.
The second trait is temperament. He blocks through the whistle and is at his best on down blocks, doubles and short combinations where power beats space. In protection he anchors against bull rush and long-armed power, but recovery athleticism against edge speed is only average, which is precisely why the guard projection made sense. He never quits a rep.
Gap, duo and power run scheme that lets its guards drive vertically and win with hands inside, paired with a pocket passer who needs a firm interior wall.
Year 1: plug-and-play left guard from Week 1 with no positional experiment required. Ceiling: long-tenured, well-paid starter who sets the physical tone of the run game.
Outside-zone offense that asks guards to reach three-techniques and climb to linebackers in open grass, or a heavy screen-and-pull system built on second-level range.
Value jumps in any building that already has both tackles settled and needs the interior fixed immediately.
Matthew Bergeron 2023 NFL Draft Tape | Syracuse OL
Full draft cutup of the 2022 left-tackle tape, including the reps against ACC first-round edge rushers.
Brick Wall Breakdown #13: Matthew Bergeron Offensive Line Film Study
Technique-focused study of the anchor, hand placement and the balance issues when he overextends.
Matthew Bergeron Highlights - Senior Bowl - Syracuse
Senior Bowl week reps, the setting where the interior projection was first tested in practice.
Bergeron is the rare evaluation where the question was not whether he could play, but where. He started across four seasons at Syracuse, mostly at left tackle, on a schedule that included Myles Murphy, Isaiah Foskey and Jared Verse. That tape answered the toughness question emphatically and raised the positional one just as clearly.
His identity is power. He is at his best when the block is decided inside a phone booth: down blocks, doubles, short pulls, anything that lets him get his hands inside and drive. He plays angry in a way that shows up late in bad games, which matters for a Syracuse offense that often gave him no help. The flags were about space, not effort. His feet get heavy on an island, he overextends chasing the finish, and he did not test at the combine beyond a 30.5-inch vertical and a 103-inch broad jump.
The board landed him from the back of round one to the middle of round two, with the split coming down to which teams saw a tackle and which saw a guard. Atlanta took the second view at pick 38 and said so out loud, moving him to left guard almost immediately. With Jake Matthews and Kaleb McGary settled outside, that was a clean fit rather than a compromise.
- 01
Anchor strength
Sits down on bull rush with a wide base and rarely gets walked into the pocket, the single trait that made the inside projection safe.
- 02
Down-block power
Displaces defensive tackles off the spot in gap and duo concepts, generating movement rather than just occupying a body.
- 03
Contact balance
Absorbs the initial jolt, keeps his feet under him and re-fits, which is why losses on tape rarely turn into pressure.
- 04
Finish and temperament
Blocks through the whistle with a legitimate mean streak, and the effort holds up late in games Syracuse was losing.
- 05
Proven durability
Four seasons in the ACC starting lineup, 45 career games, with reps against a run of first-round edge rushers.
- 01
Recovery athleticism
Average lateral quickness on an island means speed-to-power counters and inside spins can beat him before he resets.
- 02
Heavy feet in space
Struggles to find and hit moving targets on the perimeter, limiting his value in a wide-zone or heavy-pull scheme.
- 03
Overextension
Chasing the finish, he lunges and lets his weight get in front of his feet, which good interior counters can turn into a whiff.
- 04
Incomplete testing
Opted out of the 40 and the bench at the combine, leaving teams to grade the athletic ceiling almost entirely off tape.
— — — positional median (p50)
- 40 yd
- —s
- Vertical
- 30.5inp50
- Broad jump
- 103inp50
- Three-cone
- —s
- Shuttle
- —s
- Bench
- —rep
| Yr | Team | G |
|---|---|---|
| 2019 | Syracuse | 11 |
| 2020 | Syracuse | 11 |
| 2021 | Syracuse | 12 |
| 2022 | Syracuse | 11 |
| Career | — | 45 |
Verified against Tankathon and Syracuse athletics. No zero-filled or estimated values.
A dash means the figure is not published by a source we trust — never a zero we invented.
A powerful, mean interior starter who is a top-20 guard most years and the engine of a downhill run game.
The ceiling: a decade of durable left-guard starts where the run game bends around him and protection is never the problem.
If the space limitations compound, a solid but replaceable starter rather than a line-defining piece.
Everything above is the pre-draft evaluation. This section is what actually happened — updated year over year.
Bergeron started all 17 games at right guard for the Atlanta Falcons in his rookie season. He was a full-time starter on the offensive line.
Atlanta never pretended he was a tackle. Bergeron moved inside to left guard in his first camp and started all 17 games as a rookie in 2023 next to Jake Matthews, taking the usual lumps in protection while immediately making the run game better. In 2024 he played all 17 again in a line that stayed largely intact, and the pass-protection reps caught up to the run blocking. The 2025 season was his best: 15 games, 912 snaps, and PFF grades of 70.8 overall and 71.3 in the run game, 18th among qualifying guards. Atlanta paid him on August 1, 2026, a four-year extension through 2030 reported at up to $96 million with roughly $60 million guaranteed.
In hindsight the pick looks close to ideal for what a second-round lineman is supposed to be. Nobody drafted him expecting a franchise left tackle, and nobody should be disappointed that he is not one. The evaluation that mattered was the positional call, and the teams that trusted the power over the range were right: three seasons of full-time starts, an upward grading curve and a market-rate extension is the outcome you buy at pick 38. The quibble is ceiling. He is a very good starting guard rather than an All-Pro, and the space limitations that showed at Syracuse still cap him in wide-zone looks. For a Falcons line that needed stability more than stardom, that trade was worth making.
Data note: Verified against Tankathon and Syracuse athletics. No zero-filled or estimated values.