Elam was used sparingly as a freshman before he was forced into a starting role as a sophomore, following Melvin Lewis’ season-ending injury. With 23 tackles in 2015, Elam appeared to be turning a corner, set up for a breakout junior season. Instead, he was absent from the stat-sheet for ten games and recorded just nine tackles, two less than his freshman total.
Even though Elam’s trajectory tends to favor the pessimist, Cole Cubelic believes Elam can still turn around his career.
“It’s pretty obvious that we’re all waiting on Matt Elam to sort of morph into what he can be.