I understand your concern, but in real life we do not know what is with Clay! They discribed the reason for not practicing as soreness, but it may be also some knee ligament issue, like some relatively small damage that do not need surgery, but need time to heal! It can also be some artrosis that can be treated conservative etc. We need little patience. I believe Packers (as organization) has answers to the possible problems...

Because Green Bay and all of the NFL teams give very little information on injuries.....hard to say what's up w/ Clay. He could have hyperextended it or have even aworst strain. No matter. Whatever the issue is, if Clay sits out the entire pre-season and is ready to go against the Bears the D will be fine. I doubt Clay needs a ton of practice to get ready for the regular season.

Cory - as an FYI, Mike Spofford at Packers.com wrote that Clay returned to practice yesterday. As for leadership abilities I would agree that he needs to step up in that area even when he is healthy. Thanks, Since '61

I can't work up very much concern, assuming MM is being reasonably honest about the nature and extent of CM3's injury. I'm not worried about Clay's leadership and gambling, which I see as playing with speed and instincts. CM3 crosses the LOS, whereas Hawk rarely got near it to fill a gap or beat a pulling G to the spot.

With regard to missing parts of training camp, I wish you had simply said "I think Clay Matthews is malingering" rather than using five hundred words to insinuate it.

We've brought up that subject I cringe over, "What if Matthews _______" (Fill in Blank). The injury, no matter how small the Packers suggest (What else would MM say?) is concerning because of the time missed. The Packers depend WAY to much on Matthews and to depend so much on one player in a sport where your career can be over in one play is concerning. This is exactly why Free Agency shouldn't be ignored. When TT has dove in he's hit a home run in most cases. Tony McDaniels just signed with Tampa for $2.5 million. That's pretty affordable for a DL player who's not to old and a team on the cusp. I know McDaniels doesn't play LB. My point is FA can be a effective when used in small amounts. Be honest, do the Packers make the NFC Championship game without Peppers last year?

The Packers have been careful with Matthews before, usually it's a hamstring but we've been here before. Hopefully Matthews can play for 19 games at a high level and the Packers are really "Just being Cautious", if not well...

It sounds like you think the packers are playing favorites with Clay.. Honestly I don't care if Clay takes one practice snap if he produces on the field. Packers have done this stuff for years. Clifton only did walk through in his later years, Sitton was very limited last year with toe injury.. Not worried. As to leading a defense... is there any question? YES Hawk lost his starting job last year. He called plays but wasn't leader of the defense until Matthews go here. Matthews just leads by example and terrorizing the opposing QB is being the leader of the D. Think your worrying to much about a guy that yes gets nicked up but still is leader in sacks with GB year in and out.

Good read Cory, thanks. Some folks are leaders and some aren't, it's just not in their nature. Maybe Clay is a quiet leader, we really don't know for sure. I'd say taking on a new position, effectively at least doubling Clay's responsibilities, is a good example for the team. As long he continues to play at a high level, I don't think it's that important for Clay to be a vocal leader.

I think leadership is one of the most difficult aspects to measure. There are so many styles: "vocal leader", "lead by example", etc.
The players know who the leaders are, and they might not be very forthcoming about it.
Clay is a great player.
Does he get nicked up a lot? Yes!
Is he a great leader? I don't know.

I don't get the impression that Clay is the vocal leader you guys want him to be. Similar to Steph Curry in Golden State, I think he can be the best player on the defense without being the vocal leader. Daniels or Barrington can play that Draymond Green type role.

One of the last games of the year or maybe the Dallas playoff game, Peppers was asked to give a pregame speech. MM was impressed as were all the players. The team was fired up and motivated. This team has leaders and I'm not worried about motivation. Bring on the season. GOPACKGO.

Do you really think Hawk was a great vocal leader? I dont. Yeah he received the play calls and got people lined up but that was his job. Just like its Morgan Burnetts job to line up the DBs. Do you think hes a vocal leader outside of that?

Mike Daniels is a talker, hes always talking and sure hes taken it upon himself to toughen up the team a bit but does he make anyone else around him better? Besides Guion and Raji 2 vets, has he really helped anyone get better on the field with all that talking?

Give Matthews Hawk's job and I assure you he will excel at it. Hes instinctive and aggressive, Hawk was the opposite of that. Hawk could have watched film all day every day and he would still never have the kind of impact Clay has or will have at ILB.

He may not be completely comfortable being the QB of the defense but he will get used it and do it better than Hawk did and for that I have no doubt.

Health is the only thing you can question about this guy and its because of the way he plays, balls out. He played every game last year, so we just have to hope for the best and let the chips fall where they may.

These comments are killing me right now.. For anyone to doubt Clay's toughness is a joke. When you think of someone going all out, every play, it's Clay(and Mike Daniels, but he's not involved in this right now). Yes he's missed multiple practices for multiple years and always comes back where he left off. However, he's had an entire off season to get ready for inside as well as the beginning of camp(which he was healthy for, btw, contrary to this article). Remember he only had four practices to prepare to play inside against the Bears, and how well did that game turn out? Actually, how well did the rest of the season turn out? His switch alone changed this past season into a memorable one. However, the fact that he wasn't voted as a team captain for the playoffs, could raise a debate about his leadership, no doubt. But, lead by example right? Which is the same thing ex packers said about Arod when they were hating on his leadership. With all I said, I really hope Daniels becomes the leader/captain of this defense. His mental make up and physical prescence is second to none on this packer D. I feel like most packer fans can agree with that.

Go Pack

I would like to see Burnett step up this year and be more of a leader of the D. Being voted a co-captain for the playoffs should give him more confidence. He was probably less confident early last year after having a sub-par 2013. But that was due to the awful play by the players at Safety next to him. With HHCD making a big second year jump, I think Burnett may well step up to the plate in the leadership department.