You makes some interesting points. That being said, I'm not sure what the excuse is for less of a pass rush overall. Obviously the departure of Cullen Jenkins had something to do with this. It seemed to me that there were less CB blitzes this year. I haven't seen any stats to back that up, so I may be incorrect.

I don't know about Raji. I haven't heard such of criticism of him before. Further, it never seemed like there was pressure from anywhere unless the secondary held for a spectacularly long amount of time. That may have more to do with blitz calling than any one player. Also, I think a lot of teams took the attitude of "Fuck it, they're not going to get to the QB, let's pass 50 times and see if we can beat them." That's why the secondary got torched for so many yards, but also had so many INTs.

So yes, Matthews is probably the best front 7 player the Packers had this year on defense. To me, that's not really saying much. I'd argue that Bishop was better against the run, but that may be unfair because he's essentially playing a different position than Matthews.

I just don't know about the charge that Matthews pass rush was weak because of the lack of a pass rush elsewhere. I don't expect him to get a sack or a tackle when double-teamed. I expect it to come from elsewhere. That didn't happen. I guess I just expected much more out of the whole front 7 that I can't give Matthews a passing grade for this year.