Brother vs Brother

[packerzrule]

Everyone knew this was coming. The moment the words left Casey Matthews' mouth, he probably knew his brother would deny them.

After Casey said older bro, Clay Matthews, wasn't thrilled with moving inside linebacker, it was clear that Clay would have to deny that (what else could he say?)

That rebuttal came Thursday when Clay said "there's not much truth" to his brother's opinion and admitted to taking "some heat from a few guys" in the locker room.
While there isn't much truth, there was some truth to Casey's comments. Clay said he initially wasn't a huge fan of the switch.

"I think anytime there's a position change -- as I mentioned last week -- there's some hesitation, obviously, with what I was comfortable doing," Matthews said, per the Green Bay Press-Gazette.
"I think anytime you're put in position to make plays like last week, it's not only going to benefit yourself, but it's going to benefit the defense as well. Yeah, in a perfect world, I'd love to line up outside 100 percent of the time, get sacks, but we were able to do that from a different position. It worked out."

Switching from the outside to the inside is not an easy transition. But the move gets the Packers best 11 defenders on the field more often, especially on running downs. However, Sunday against the Philadelphia Eagles, we still expect him to find plenty of opportunities to rush Mark Sanchez from the edge.

Clay was asked whether he thought Casey's comments were just to stir up noise in advance of their tussle Sunday.

"No, I don't think so," Matthews said. "I don't think he's that smart. He's an inside backer, after all."
Zing!

 

[Mondio]

He's not that smart. I love it. and I hope Clay does hate his new position. I hope he's pissed at everyone, because he played it last Sunday. He didn't do anything, but look around for someone to blow up and he was everywhere doing everything.

so if moving him makes him mad, and it allows us to get all of our best guys on the field, then move him all over. He's an athlete that can do a lot on the field. I'm glad he's not a one trick pony anymore. Not hard to scheme against a guy that lines up in the same spot all the time.

 

[wiskyisgood12]

Clay doesn't have to love his new position, he just has to play like he did against the Bears.

It's not a bad thing to feel uncomfortable/not like where you're playing if it helps you play with a bit of an edge.

 

[packerzrule]

My perspective is that if I have an employee that I am paying millions of dollars per yer to work for me, then he damn well better be receptive to what I ask him to do.

Besides, am I the only one that thinks that his move to ILB improved the overall defensive effort 10 fold?

 

[wiskyisgood12]

My perspective is that if I have an employee that I am paying millions of dollars per yer to work for me, then he damn well better be receptive to what I ask him to do.

Besides, am I the only one that thinks that his move to ILB improved the overall defensive effort 10 fold?

I completely agree it increased the overall effort. I would think he was fairly receptive to it. It seemed like he was enjoying his new role. The evolution of his role will be interesting to me.

 

[Mondio]

I agree, they all played better. I'm trying to temper my enthusiasm because after all it was a game in which things were going our way too. I mean, a WR blocked a punt with his foot. how often does that happen? I'm not sure how much I can attribute to an improvement or to the football gods just smiling on us that day.

But It makes sense to me to move Matthews around too. I think the only reason they didn't more earlier is we didn't have anyone that could play the edges decent enough to move him. Now we have Perry and Neal playing pretty well. They hold the edge very well and push defenders back into the pocket. They aren't Matthews, but if you put him somewhere else, now you've got guys that can legitimately make it to your qb from all angles.

 

[redlegs1869]

My perspective is that if I have an employee that I am paying millions of dollars per yer to work for me, then he damn well better be receptive to what I ask him to do.

Besides, am I the only one that thinks that his move to ILB improved the overall defensive effort 10 fold?

I 100% agree with you in theory. However, you'd better be sure that whoever is taking over Clay's spot on the outside is up to task. Perry has been improving as the season moves along, but I still see him as an injury waiting to happen. Also, with Clay on the inside a team like Philly can and will scheme to the outside to take advantage of his absence.

Just food for thought.