Clay Matthews fine with ILB
Green Bay Packers star defensive player Clay Matthews has built a reputation for being one of the league’s finest 3-4 outside linebackers, blending consistent pressure off the edge with playmaking ability and solid run defense. But last week against the rival Chicago Bears, the Packers decided to try something unique by moving Matthews inside, as they have extremely little talent at ILB but plenty of depth at OLB. The results were much better than anyone could have anticipated, as Matthews was arguably the league’s best defensive player for Week 10 and looked like a very fine ILB.
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His brother Casey Matthews stated that he doesn’t think Clay Matthews likes playing on the inside much, but that doesn’t appear to be the case. According to FOX Sports Wisconsin’s Paul Imig, Matthews stated that there “isn’t much truth” to the comments his brother made about how he feels playing inside linebacker, and the fact that he is denying those comments isn’t a surprise. First of all, he was excellent at that position. Secondly, why would he say anything possibly inflammatory about playing in that role? It would have caused the team to be upset with him and not much good could have come from that.
Casey shouldn’t have spoken and made some conjecture about his brother’s feelings at inside linebacker. In any case, it’s clear that Matthews was excellent against Chicago, and it will be interesting to see how often the Packers try this out. If they do, will he regress? What I do know is that if Matthews can play at very high level on the inside, then the Packers will be much better off due to their aforementioned depth on the outside.