Throughout his 10-year career, Clay Matthews has displayed excellent versatility at the linebacker position. He’s played both inside and outside, lining up as an off-ball linebacker, as well as an edge rusher.
The six-time Pro Bowler’s position will continue to be fluid with the Rams, once again playing inside and outside linebacker. The Rams have a greater need at edge rusher, which is where he should see most of his playing time, but Mark Barron’s departure opened up a hole next to Cory Littleton inside, too.
It’s still extremely early and the Rams have ample time to determine Matthews’ position, but it sounds like he’ll be outside more than inside.
“As far as base defense, first and second down, I’ll be playing one of the outside linebacker positions – you know, Sam or Will,” Matthews said Monday. “As far as third down or anytime there’s pass-rushing situations, it’s so flexible as far as where I can play on the outside, on the inside. So I think as I said when I first came here, that’s a little fluid. But as far as where they’re going to put me in the program, it’ll say outside linebacker.”
As Matthews said, it’ll likely be him and Dante Fowler Jr. as the starting outside linebackers. Cory Littleton and Micah Kiser will line up inside on first and second down, but Kiser will likely come off the field on third. That opens the door for Matthews to slide inside in passing situations, dropping into coverage or blitzing up the middle – something he did a lot in Green Bay.
Taylor Rapp and Marqui Christian will also find their way into the mix, getting on the field in sub-packages as dime linebackers in three-safety sets. Regardless, the Rams are going to find ways to get their best defenders on the field, and that’ll include Matthews more often than not.
