It might not take a rocket scientist to understand that a 32-year-old trying to make an NFL roster at a position he’s never played in a regular-season game needs to put in the work. But Jordan Matthews, who’s doing just that at the Carolina Panthers’ training camp, learned that lesson from a rocket scientist.

At the Panthers’ training camp, the former Madison Academy standout is noted for being on the practice field early.

“I love connecting with all of my teammates, getting to know them, getting to know their families,” Matthews said this week. “But we can do that after practice. It’s time to go, and I got kids to pay for private school for, so playing booray and all that, playing ping pong, that don’t do nothing for me. I need to get out here, get my body going, get my mind right because I love this game and you got to respect it, and the second you don’t, you’ll be done with it.”

Matthews said he had the value of work imprinted on him early.

“I was fortunate enough to have parents that both showed me what work ethic looked like,” Matthews said. “My dad was always up in the morning, shirt, tie, ready to go to work, and my mom’s a computer engineer. She worked for NASA, worked for the Department of Defense, and she came up in a time when they wouldn’t even let her wear her natural hair to work. She had to get it straightened, so I’m like, ‘Mom, you get up, you work out, you do your hair, you get dressed and you go to work and you get food on the table for us,’ so I saw parents that put the work in and put the time in, and so I feel like that’s my responsibility now as a father and as a husband to do that for my family.”

Matthews’ father also worked for the Department of Defense at Redstone Arsenal.

“You can ask my mom like, ‘Hey, what’s 56 times 40?’ and she’ll be like — she’ll give you the number” Matthews said. “Like, she’s just a genius. My brother’s an engineer, too, so like my whole family’s smart, and I’m getting my head crashed in. But I got in Vanderbilt, so people think I’m smart at least.”

At Vanderbilt, Matthews broke SEC career records with 262 receptions for 3,759 yards. As a second-round draft pick, Matthews had caught 225 passes for 2,673 yards and 19 touchdowns for Philadelphia in his first three NFL seasons when the Eagles traded him to the Buffalo Bills during training camp in 2017. Matthews has been bedeviled by injuries since the trade, with 49 receptions for 615 yards and three touchdowns in 31 games with the Bills, Eagles, San Francisco 49ers and Panthers.

In 2021, Matthews decided to transition from a wide receiver to a tight end. He said 49ers coach Kyle Shanahan supported the change – if Matthews could add 20 pounds in about one month without losing his agility and speed.

“It forced me to go to another level of preparation,” Matthews said. “I could just wake up and be a receiver. But to put on 20 pounds, not gain 5 percent body fat and still be able to play football at a high level was tough. I never used to think about what I ate that much, but at that point I got a chef. I was eating at 5:30, 8:30, 11:30, 2:30, 5:30 and 8:30 — 10 ounces of grains, 4 ounces of protein, couple veggies. I ate so many freaking digestive enzymes it’d make your head spin to get food down. And then protein shakes mixed in after workouts.

“I never had to put that much time into a process before. Playing receiver, it was just: What do I do on the field? That process, it didn’t escape me at all times. Like, what’s my weight? Like, how’s my body feel? What’s my inflammation like? So it just took me to another level of the grind, but I realized at that point I really do love this.”

Since the beginning of the 2021 season, Matthews has played in two NFL regular-season games, but his work was limited to 23 special-teams plays in those games. He missed the entire 2022 season because of a knee injury.

In Carolina’s 17-3 loss to the New England Patriots last week in the Panthers’ preseason opener, Matthews caught three passes for 48 yards, including a 28-yarder for Carolina’s longest gain of the game. He had 19 offensive snaps and 12 special-teams plays.

The Carolina depth chart lists two starting tight ends – Ian Thomas and Tommy Tremble – with Matthews a second-team option.

The Panthers continue their preseason schedule against the New York Jets at 6 p.m. CDT Saturday at Bank of America Stadium in Charlotte, North Carolina.

Matthews was a football and basketball standout for Madison Academy. He helped the Mustangs win the AHSAA Class 3A boys’ basketball championship in 2008 and reach the title game the next two seasons. In football, Matthews earned All-State recognition in 2009, when he caught 61 passes for 1,061 yards and 13 touchdowns to boost his prep total to 38 TD receptions.

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Mark Inabinett is a sports reporter for Alabama Media Group. Follow him on Twitter at @AMarkG1.