Player Dossier

2019-2024

New Mexico State

Matt Lawson

DL • 6'0" • 280 lbs • Ontario, CA, USA

Ball-hunting defenderSplash play profile

Matt Lawson shows a ball-hunting defender profile with 15 disruption score.

Usage / Role

33%

Rotational defensive role

lowfeatured

Impact Production

34

Developing production for a defensive lineman

lowelite

Reliability

27

Sporadic game-to-game production

lowhigh

Star Power

54

Limited ceiling signals so far

limitedstar

Career Arc

Value trend by season

Best season by Season Value: 2023 Regular Season · Northwestern

19202121222324

Snapshot

Career Teams
3
Unique Seasons
6
Program Path
Fresno State • Northwestern • New Mexico State
Peak Game
Peak game by takeover score: Florida International

Player Story

Matt Lawson built his college career from 2019 through 2024 as a defensive lineman from Ontario, CA wearing No. 90, spending time with Fresno State, New Mexico State, and Northwestern. The clearest part of Matt...

Read the story
3★

Recruit Profile

Class 2018 · Rating 0.8204

Colony · Ontario, CA

Committed To
Fresno State
Commit Date
Jan 1, 2018

Matt Lawson, DL. Best season Best season by Season Value: 2023 Regular Season · Northwestern. Matt Lawson shows a ball-hunting defender profile with 15 disruption score.

Stat Footprint

Career production snapshot

Tackles
48
TFL
6
QB hurries
2
Passes defended
3

Quick Answers

Matt Lawson quick answers

Latest team and position
New Mexico State · DL
Career Tackles
48
Tracked sample
6 unique seasons · 7 entries · 23 games
Best season
2023 Regular Season · Northwestern
Top game
Florida International
Recruit profile
3-star · Colony · Fresno State
High school pipeline
Colony · 16 FBS recruits · 1 drafted player
Latest roster
No. 90 · Senior
2024 Tackles rank
30 tackles · DL 177th (top 18%) · Conference USA 116th (top 26%) · National 1,415th (top 24%)

Season Ledger

Crawlable season-by-season stats

SeasonTeamGamesTacklesTFLSacksQB HurPDTDOverall
2019 Regular SeasonFresno State00-0--0-
2020 Regular SeasonFresno State11-0--036.4
2021 PostseasonFresno State31-0--038.4
2021 Regular SeasonFresno State33-0--038.4
2022 Regular SeasonFresno State6121.5021040
2023 Regular SeasonNorthwestern1110--058.1
2024 Regular SeasonNew Mexico State12303.50-2041

Related Context

Transfer Portal History

Matched portal movement

SeasonPathMovementValueDate
2024Northwestern to New Mexico StateP4 to G5/FCS21.2Nov 30, 2023
2023Fresno State to UnlistedG5/FCS to Unlisted21.2Apr 17, 2023

Matt Lawson played DL for Fresno State, Northwestern, and New Mexico State. Across 6 tracked seasons, Matt Lawson recorded 48 tackles. His top tracked season came in 2024 with New Mexico State.

Player insights

Lead takeaway

Best season by value score: 2023 Regular Season

Northwestern paired 1 primary output with 14.2 efficiency.

Supporting note

2024 Regular Season role shape

impact-led usage with 15 efficiency.

Supporting note

Career value cooled off

2024 Regular Season fell back from the prior stop by season value score.

Supporting note

Multi-stop career journey

Production spans 3 team stops, with role shifts visible across Fresno State, Northwestern, New Mexico State.

Supporting note

Peak game by takeover score: Florida International

Loss with 2 impact plays across the defensive snap sheet. It landed in the 100th percentile of the selected season.

Analysis workspace

Season Workbench

Filter the strongest season sample, inspect game-level shape, and then drop into the full log without losing the story of the year.

Season Explorer

Understand the selected season before dropping into the full game log.

2024 Regular Season · New Mexico State

Games

12

Havoc Plays / G

0.5

Efficiency

15

Usage

4.2

Consistency

13.9

Best Game by takeover score

Florida International

Hover a point or expand a game row to keep the active game context visible here.

Active game

Hover over a point

Hover or select a game to keep its context visible here without the page shifting around.

Game-by-Game Trend

Follow how the selected stat changes from one game to the next. Spikes mark standout outings, while dips show quieter weeks.

123456789101112

Chronological game order.

Game by game trend chart. Southeast Missouri State: 0.5. Liberty: 0. Fresno State: 0. Sam Houston: 1. New Mexico: 0. Jacksonville State: 0. Louisiana Tech: 0. Florida International: 2. Western Kentucky: 1. Texas A&M: 1. Middle Tennessee: 0. UTEP: 0

Volume vs Efficiency

Each dot is a game. Farther right means the player carried more of the workload, and higher means they were more efficient with those chances.

Low volumeHigh quality

High volumeHigh quality

Low volumeLower quality

High volumeLower quality

Volume on the x-axis, quality on the y-axis.

Volume versus efficiency scatter chart. Southeast Missouri State: 1 by 9.2. Liberty: 3 by 12.5. Fresno State: 3 by 12.5. Sam Houston: 5 by 30.8. New Mexico: 2 by 8.3. Jacksonville State: 5 by 20.8. Louisiana Tech: 3 by 12.5. Florida International: 4 by 36.7. Western Kentucky: 0 by 10. Texas A&M: 1 by 14.2. Middle Tennessee: 1 by 4.2. UTEP: 2 by 8.3

Split Comparison

Compare how this player performed across different situations. "Games" shows how many matchups are included in each split.

Wins0.2 · Games = 3 · -0.4 vs Losses
Losses0.6 · Games = 9 · +0.4 vs Wins

Game Log

Dense stat lines with inline explanations and season-linked highlights.

12 games

Featured metric

Havoc Plays

Top game by takeover score

Florida International

Best efficiency game

36.7 vs Florida International

Result
Sat 11/30vs UTEPL 35-4222000
Sat 11/23@ Middle TennesseeW 36-2110000
Sun 11/17@ Texas A&ML 3-3811100
Sat 11/9vs Western KentuckyL 28-4100001
Tue 10/29@ Florida InternationalSplash gameL 13-3443200
Wed 10/16vs Louisiana TechW 33-3030000
Wed 10/9@ Jacksonville StateL 13-5450000
Sun 9/29vs New MexicoL 40-5020000
Sat 9/21@ Sam HoustonL 11-3155001
Sun 9/15@ Fresno StateL 0-4832000
Sun 9/8vs LibertyL 24-3031000
Sun 9/1vs Southeast Missouri StateW 23-16100.5000

Player Story

Matt Lawson story

Matt Lawson built his college career from 2019 through 2024 as a defensive lineman from Ontario, CA wearing No. 90, spending time with Fresno State, New Mexico State, and Northwestern. The clearest part of Matt Lawson's career was his defensive production: 48 tackles, 6 tackles for loss, and 3 passes defended across 23 career games in the available record. That gives Matt Lawson's career enough real context without stretching the story beyond the available production.

Career Arc

Track team changes, role shifts, and season-to-season movement.

  1. 1

    Fresno State

    2019-2022

    Opening stop

  2. 2

    Northwestern

    2023

    Peak year stop

  3. 3

    New Mexico State

    2024

    Final stop

Season Value Progression

2019202020212021202220232024
SeasonTeamPrimaryEfficiencyUsageDelta
2019 Regular SeasonFresno State0
2020 Regular SeasonFresno State04.20.60
2021 PostseasonFresno State05.61.20
2021 Regular SeasonFresno State05.61.20
2022 Regular SeasonFresno State4.515.94.14.5
2023 Regular SeasonNorthwestern114.217.3-3.5
2024 Regular SeasonNew Mexico State5.5154.24.5

Signature Performances

Top Games

#1 Featured game

@ Florida International

Week 10 · L 13-34 · Conference game

Loss with 2 impact plays across the defensive snap sheet.

2

Havoc Plays

78.9 takeover

2 disruption/tackle impact with 78.9 takeover score.

#2

@ Rutgers

Week 1 · L 7-24 · Conference game

1

Havoc Plays

71.4 takeover

Loss with 1 impact plays across the defensive snap sheet.

1 disruption/tackle impact with 71.4 takeover score.

#3

vs Hawai'i

Week 10 · W 55-13 · Conference game

3

Havoc Plays

63.1 takeover

Win with 3 impact plays across the defensive snap sheet.

3 disruption/tackle impact with 63.1 takeover score.

#4

@ Texas A&M

Week 12 · L 3-38

1

Havoc Plays

43.3 takeover

Loss with 1 impact plays across the defensive snap sheet.

1 disruption/tackle impact with 43.3 takeover score.

#5

@ Sam Houston

Week 4 · L 11-31 · Conference game

1

Havoc Plays

37.2 takeover

Loss with 1 impact plays across the defensive snap sheet.

1 disruption/tackle impact with 37.2 takeover score.

Top Seasons

#1 Season by Season Value

2023 Regular Season · Northwestern

1 primary output · 14.2 efficiency · 17.3 usage

58.1

#2

2024 Regular Season · New Mexico State

41

5.5 primary · 15 efficiency · 4.2 usage

#3

2022 Regular Season · Fresno State

40

4.5 primary · 15.9 efficiency · 4.1 usage

Milestones

3

Impact games

2

Splash games

0

10+ tackle games