National Football League

Despite great results, McCarthy says 'Clay Matthews is not an inside linebacker'

Published Nov. 10, 2014 9:15 p.m. ET

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GREEN BAY. Wis. -- Clay Matthews was an inside linebacker Sunday night against the Chicago Bears. On nearly 75 percent of the Green Bay Packers' defensive snaps that he was on the field for, that was Matthews' spot.

It was an actual position switch for a player who's been to four Pro Bowls as an outside linebacker. Matthews is just 19 months removed from signing a contract extension with the Packers that made him the highest-paid linebacker in NFL history. He earned that deal due to his play as an outside linebacker, not as an inside linebacker.

Therefore, when Green Bay's coaching staff decided over its bye week to take Matthews out of his natural position, it was a risk that could have easily backfired. Instead, Matthews delivered with a career-high 11 tackles (9 of which he did on his own as solo tackles) and one sack. Matthews would've had a second sack, as well, but it was wiped out by penalty because he hit Jay Cutler in the head upon contact.

Matthews received rave reviews for his performance. But if anyone thinks Matthews has found himself a permanent new position, head coach Mike McCarthy would beg to differ.

"Clay Matthews is not an inside linebacker," McCarthy said Monday. "He's a football player."

It would be logical to assume, based off the success Matthews had in his debut at playing more inside linebacker than outside linebacker, that this would be something the Packers might do regularly. At least for now. But McCarthy wasn't ready to declare that yet.

"We'll see where he plays this week," McCarthy said.

After Sunday's game, Matthews was excited about the change. With his individual results, not to mention the 55-14 final score, of course he'd be feeling good about it. But even Matthews was in wait-and-see mode in terms of whether this would become an every-week defensive approach.

"I've always taken pride in whatever they've asked me to do, so you put me in position where there's some free space and some opportunities to make some plays (and) I took advantage of it," Matthews said. "So, I think this is what we wanted out of this change and we'll see what that means going forward."

Defensive coordinator Dom Capers was noncommittal about what his plans were with Matthews moving forward. Though it is likely for strategic reasons that Capers didn't want to give those details away.

"Every week your plan is a little different depending on what you feel you've got to do to win the game," Capers said. "We've got all the same personnel groups where he'll play where he's always played. These were just a couple additional groups where he moved inside."

That part is true. Matthews didn't completely abandon his usual role as an outside linebacker. He played inside on first and second down, sliding outside when it was a pass-rushing situation on third down. Matthews' sack came when lined up at right outside linebacker. He also moved pre-snap from inside to outside at times, including on a disguise play that resulted in Matthews stuffing an end-around for a loss of eight yards.

"I think they create more problems for preparation when they aren't sure exactly where Clay is going to be," Capers said.

There were a couple obvious reasons for this change being made. For one, Green Bay's run defense was the worst in the NFL through nine weeks. Capers thought it was worth seeing whether having Matthews inside and working freely behind the defensive linemen would solve that issue.

It did, and with remarkable success. After a Week 4 matchup with Chicago in which the Packers gave up 235 rushing yards, they only allowed the Bears to get 55 rushing yards in Sunday's rematch.

"I thought it did have a major impact on our run defense," Capers said.

With that performance, Green Bay got itself out of the bottom of the league rankings, moving up from 32nd in run defense to 30th. Hey, it's got to start somewhere.

"If you're having issues in certain areas to where you can address those issues, that's what we tried to do over the bye week," Capers said. "We like the results in the first outing of it."

The other main reason for switching Matthews was due to poor play at inside linebacker and solid depth at outside linebacker. The Packers have gotten consistent -- albeit unspectacular -- play at inside linebacker from A.J. Hawk, but they hadn't found a partner for him who was getting the job done to the team's liking. Brad Jones got a shot, Jamari Lattimore had a couple opportunities and even seldom-used Sam Barrington got two starts.

Meanwhile, Green Bay was very pleased with the way backup outside linebackers Nick Perry and Mike Neal were playing. It made sense for Capers to prefer having either Perry or Neal on the field (along with Matthews and Julius Peppers) rather than Jones, Lattimore or Barrington.

"Clay gives us a bigger guy inside," Capers said. "Obviously he's an outstanding player, and I think he's an outstanding player whether he's playing inside or outside. I like the fact that we can play him both places."

There was no way for Chicago to have been ready for this. It became a midseason unscouted look, and one that revolved around the Packers' most talented defensive player. Being unprepared for something like that will certainly make it that much more difficult to stop. But the unknown factor of it is gone now. And therein lies the next challenge in this experiment for Green Bay's coaching staff.

"The value of it is in the first opportunity," McCarthy said. "First off, you do that so there's an adjustment that's made, how they declare their run-blocking schemes, the starting point, how they declare their pass-protection scheme. The other benefit is the guards and centers didn't get to practice, anticipate that skill set in there. That's the benefit of an unscouted look.

"Now, Week 2 will be different, and it obviously goes away."

In a similar fashion to McCarthy, Matthews believes "it's a little premature to say there's a switch to middle linebacker, or whatever you want to call it." But with the effectiveness that this move had for the Packers' defense, it's unlikely to be a one-and-done trial.

"Clay's a bright guy; he sees the big picture," Capers said. "He knows that he's not going to be pigeon-holed into one thing where they can zero in on him, that if he can rush from the inside, he can play off from inside and rush from outside, he can move around and stem late.

"Those are all positive things, and Clay likes to do those things."

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