Clay Matthews Fitting Perfectly in Leadership Role for Struggling Packers

Pass-rusher Clay Matthews' career as an inside linebacker for the Green Bay Packers may have begun as a matter of necessity in the middle of the 2014 season, but as he has flourished in the position in 2015, it has proved to be a logical next step for the veteran linebacker.

As an edge-rushing outside linebacker, Matthews was a powerful piece on a chess board being moved by someone else. 

As the middle linebacker, the "quarterback of the defense," he's the one getting players lined up and relaying the calls from the coaches that he receives in the new headset in his helmet. 

You won't see Matthews listed on the depth chart as the "Mack" linebacker (the 3-4 iteration of the more commonly known "Mike" linebacker); rookie Jake Ryan's name appears there currently. 

But Matthews' new identity on the field and in the locker room is very much tied up in the role and responsibilities of the middle linebacker position...and he's thriving. 

"I have the headset now, in my helmet, which puts me in direct communication with the coaches upstairs, who relay the play calls and give them to me to get everybody lined up," Matthews told Bleacher Report when asked to describe the responsibilities of his new role.

He also explained how the move inside has given him the ability to expand his leadership role on the team, which is a natural step for the veteran as he enters the midpoint of his seventh season with the Packers. 

"It's really made me open up as far as getting players set, making the right call, the right personnel, down and distance...I think anytime that you're required to be more vocal, your leadership role continues to step up, as far as getting everybody lined up as well as motivating one another."

Matthews is now making "a number" of calls for the defense and additionally is being asked to do more on every down than he did when lining up outside.

He also emphasized that the Packers' defensive game plan is not static; he doesn't blindly relay every play call made from on high. If he sees something the opposing offense is doing that he doesn't like, he has the prerogative to change the play at the line of scrimmage. 

While he has continued to rush the passer from the middle—in fact, half of his 4.5 sacks so far this season have resulted from interior rushes—he is also asked to drop into coverage and defend the run. 

Most of all, he is asked to slow down and think, which is something that can be difficult to do for a 255-pound pass-rushing machine who is used to flying off the edge. 

But Matthews, as it turns out, is the perfect man for the job. When he describes how many moving parts come along with the new gig, you realize why the Packers wanted to move their valued veteran into the role, rather than a 2015 rookie—first-rounder, fourth-rounder or otherwise. 

Why is it so hard to find that perfect inside 'backer—one who can drop into coverage and defend the run and one who does not need to rotate out from down-to-down? And why does Matthews think he's excelling at that role?

"I think a premium is being put back on the middle linebacker position, on a player who can excel at stopping the run downhill as well as be smart and try to beat some of these players before they even get started, getting people lined up as well as dropping into coverage and understanding route concepts," Matthews said, noting that he did not play any inside linebacker in college at USC; the last time he had played the position was in high school. 

So while the transition was definitely "a change of pace," he had already proved he was qualified for the job. 

Jeff Haynes/Associated Press/Associated Press

"I consider myself a pretty smart player—one who can decipher plays as well as route concepts—so I think anytime you put me closer to the ball, good things are gonna happen," Matthews said. 

And they have. 

Matthews has 42 combined tackles on the year already after nine games, which is already approaching his average of 51 per season. He's on pace for 75 combined tackles, which would be a career high. 

Despite only rushing off the edge on the occasional play, Matthews' sack numbers aren't even coming in at a much-slower pace than normal.

Games at ILB (2014-2015)	Comb. Tackles	Sacks	Passes Defended
Career Avg Per Season, Pre-ILB	Comb. Tackles	Sacks	Passes Defended
17	84	13	8
6.5 seasons	49	10	5

Sure, the drought over the last three games has not been ideal—and Matthews had some thoughts on that—but he's on pace for eight sacks this season, which is not much lower than his average of 10 per season. 

But about that drought. 

The Packers need Matthews' leadership more than ever now. While the defense this season has, in somewhat of a role reversal, played at a higher level than the team's normally high-powered offense, Matthews' unit has experienced its own slide in the three weeks since the Week 7 bye.

It's up to players such as Matthews, who have the veteran experience and serve as a motivating factor for their teammates, to help diagnose what is limiting the team and how to find a solution. 

What is the reason for the Packers' decline since the bye week? I asked Matthews if opponents have simply figured out a game plan to eliminate Green Bay's pass rush and attack the middle of the field and what the team can do to adjust. He broke it down:

"A lot of these teams now...you look at how fast we started the season as far as sacks are concerned and pressure and hits on the quarterback, and we were right up there at No. 2 behind Denver, so the biggest way to kind of eliminate the pass rush is to slow us down, give us max-protect shifts on the way out into coverage, as well as three-step routes and getting rid of the ball quickly," Matthews said.

"You know, sacks, turnovers, interceptions in particular, they always come in bunches, and for us we've been very good at getting after the quarterback as well as taking the ball away and kind of fell on a little dry spell as far as getting those sacks, but I felt like [against Detroit] we did a fairly good job of keeping after the quarterback, but he was just able to kind of slip out here and there, make a few plays and get the ball downfield."

And what is the solution to that kind of offensive game plan—one the Packers have seen now from Denver, Carolina and Detroit? These teams have created a blueprint for Green Bay's upcoming opponents, and while the Packers did improve against Detroit, they still had no sacks and only three hits on Matthew Stafford. 

Matthews didn't back down from the question; he knows his team needs to improve—and quickly, with three divisional clashes ahead on the schedule. 

"Overall, we could all be playing better, and I think that will be the case, especially given we've got three more divisional games coming up here, and obviously a huge game against Minnesota for the first-place spot in the division, so we need to get this thing going and we will," Matthews said. 

The veteran stressed that the Packers need to "take a look in the mirror and realize what needs to be accomplished," and explained that in his mind, success essentially boils down to players winning their one-on-one matchups. That applies to both the offense and the defense. 

Matthews expects that improvement to happen in the next week, as the Packers prepare to take on the Minnesota Vikings on Sunday, the Chicago Bears on Thanksgiving and the Detroit Lions the following week.  

If Green Bay can win those three matchups, it will gain the confidence it needs to get hot heading into the playoffs.  

Speaking of Thanksgiving, Matthews was promoting a new public service announcement he filmed in partnership with P&G to bring awareness to the "Turkeypocalypse" or the massive mess in the kitchen after Thanksgiving dinner that prevents family members from spending time together and watching football. 

Matthews gives tips on how to prevent the Turkeypocalypse from happening to your family in this lighthearted, seasonally appropriate video. 

As Matthews told me about his new ad, it begged the question: What would he be doing on Thanksgiving if the Packers weren't playing? 

"We'd all get together with the teammates and the couples and enjoy a relatively small dinner, as well as watching the games, but we tend to find ourselves playing on Thanksgiving a lot," Matthews said. "So we have to find an impromptu day to celebrate."

With a table full of Packers players, the term "relatively small" likely takes on a new meaning.

But when it comes to Thanksgiving, celebrations and advertisements aside, Matthews is focused on one thing: helping his team beat the Bears and stay in the hunt for a playoff berth. 

"You drop a game, or three in this case, it seems as if the world is ending, but we were 5-3 last year and were able to really turn it around in the second half of the season and obviously get to the NFC Championship Game," Matthews said, acknowledging that the organization and the fans are used to a certain level of success and that, as far as he's concerned, the team is committed to achieving it.

"It's time we start playing really good ball and really peaking toward the end of the season, so hopefully that's the case. We've continued to display that over the years, and hopefully nothing is different this year."

Michelle Bruton is a Featured Columnist for Bleacher Report. Unless otherwise noted, all quotations in this article were obtained via phone interview.