Green Bay Packers LB Clay Matthews Having ‘Best Year’

Green Bay Packers head coach Mike McCarthy said linebacker Clay Matthews is having his best season in the NFL, despite a dip in sack total.

Some levels of productivity aren’t reflected on the stat sheet. The players who most contribute to an improving run defense are rarely touted outside of advanced metrics such as those found at Pro Football Focus.

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So it’s no wonder that Green Bay Packers coach Mike McCarthy went out of his way to praise linebacker Clay Matthews for his contributions outside of the sack column.

“I think Clay has probably had his best year in my opinion,” McCarthy said per the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel. “What he’s done going in to play inside linebacker with not a lot of reps prior to that I think speaks volumes.”

Matthews was moved inside at the team’s bye week and their rush defense promptly improved by ten places in the league rankings. He’s likely not going to see a career-high in sacks as a result, but ten sacks through 15 games is nothing to sneeze at either.

“His versatility — this is the most we’ve used him as far as the changing and the targeting for him,” McCarthy added. “But more important, he’s been a big factor in our run defense. Our run defense has taken a huge step the last eight weeks and he’s definitely part of that.”

If the Packers are going to keep up with the rest of the deep NFC playoffs pool (outside of the NFC South, that is), they will need a stout defense to maintain its end of the bargain. That means you can expect to see Matthews on over 90% of the defensive snaps as he’s been playing to this point.

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