Before he quit on the team in the NFC Championship game, the biggest question about Green Bay Packers linebacker Clay Matthews was whether he’d play inside or outside linebacker moving forward.
Matthews played his entire career as an outside linebacker until the midpoint of the 2014 season, when he was moved inside in an effort to shore up the Packers porous run defense. The move worked, for both the Packers and Matthews.
The Packers’ defensive improvement was dramatic and instant. Matthews, meanwhile, went from having a subpar season to a pretty decent one. Matthews finished with a career high in tackles, with 61, and also added 11 sacks, 9 passes defended, 1 INT and 2 forced fumbles.
As a whole, those numbers look pretty solid. However, you have to consider that Matthews did next to nothing during the first half of the season, while exclusively playing outside linebacker. Through the first eight games, Matthews had just 19 tackles and 2.5 sacks.
You could make the argument that the move inside actually saved Matthews’ season.
At any rate, the Packers coaching staff appears set on moving forward with Matthews as an inside linebacker, regardless of whether he likes that idea (he doesn’t) or not.
“We had an exit interview at the end of the year where we get to talk to all the coaches on our way out, assess you, how your season was, the future of the team, the future of yourself,” Matthews said. “We talked. Moving forward I see from not only our coach’s expectations, but my own expectations (are there) for playing inside.
“I really enjoyed it. I enjoyed the change. At the same time, I’m very good at getting after the quarterback off the edge, so I think there’s a fine line. So, we’ll see. Week in and week out you never knew if I was going to be there 100% of the snaps or only 10. We’ll see what that means moving forward.
“I enjoy it (but) at the same time, I specialize at being a pass rusher and an outside linebacker.”
So Matthews expects to play inside and he’s okay with it, although not particularly fired up about it. You can tell by the way he mentions rushing the passer and how he still defines himself as an outside linebacker. Gotta get those gaudy sack numbers…
That kind of misses the crux of this whole matter though.
First, the Packers are better with Matthews inside. It takes a liability like A.J. Hawk off the field and puts another capable guy on the field in either Nick Perry, who’s better against the run than Matthews, or Mike Neal, who’s a capable pass rusher.
Second, Matthews rushed the passer more effectively AFTER the move to inside linebacker. Granted, he still lined up outside quite a bit, but the fact that he moved around definitely helped his sack numbers. The evidence is right there in front of him — 2.5 sacks as an outside linebacker, 8.5 after moving inside. What more do you need?
Maybe a crash course in what it means to be a team player?