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The Green Bay Packers are going to have one of the best offenses in the NFL once again this season, but their Super Bowl hopes will rest completely on whether or not the defense can take a step forward in 2015. Clay Matthews is the name that comes to mind when thinking about the Packers’ defense, and he will be asked to play a huge role this season in order to lead Green Bay defense.
Matthews is coming off of a very interesting season with the Packers in 2014. He started the year as a primary pass-rushing linebacker like he has been throughout his entire career, but he was moved inside later on in the season to help stop the run. It will be interesting to see whether or not the Packers keep him as a run stopper or if they feel comfortable allowing him to be the dominant pass rusher that he has been throughout his career on the outside.
During the 2014 season with the Packers, Matthews ended up recording 61 tackles, 11.0 sacks, two forced fumbles, an interception and nine defensed passes.
Needless to say, those numbers show exactly why he is considered to be one of the most dominant defensive players in the game. He has the instincts to put himself in the right place at the right time and the talent to make the plays when he’s there. Green Bay would have been one of the worst defenses in the NFL and would have had a hard time winning a Super Bowl a few years back without him on the roster.
At 29 years old, Matthews is still in his prime and is capable of playing for at least another three or four good seasons as a star.
Green Bay brought Julius Peppers in to play across from Matthews last season, and the two seemed to work very well together. He will be teaming up with Peppers once again in 2015, and it has definitely made his job easier. They are going to be asked to put pressure on the quarterback once again this season, while also stepping up and filling the leadership role that was left by A.J. Hawk who ended up leaving in free agency this past offseason.
There are not many linebackers who are better than Matthews from an all-around skills standpoint. He has been dominant since the moment he first stepped onto an NFL field, and that won’t change during the upcoming season.
Training camp is going to be another entertaining event for the Packers and their fans, and Matthews will once again show the fact that he is still in perfect shape and ready to lead for another promising season. If the Packers defense is able to step up and be a top 10 all-around defense, they are going to be nearly impossible to beat. There is no doubt that they are one of the Super Bowl favorites heading into the season, and Matthews is a big reason for that projection.
Evan Massey is a featured writer for www.RantSports.com, and contributes across the NFL, MLB, NCAA and NBA portions of the site. Follow him on Twitter at @Massey_Evan and like him on Facebook.
