GREEN BAY — Clay Matthews nodded and smiled. He wasn't about to be tricked.

Not many players have come into the Green Bay Packers locker room more polished than Matthews when it comes to dealing with the media. Having played at USC and grown up with a dad and an uncle who spent nearly 40 combined seasons playing in the NFL, Matthews knows how to answer — or not answer — reporters' questions.

So after standing in the Packers locker room Wednesday — the first time he's spoken with reporters en masse since before the season opener — Matthews replied to query after query after query about his new, malleable role in the Packers' defense.

To be clear: Matthews came nowhere near questioning defensive coordinator Dom Capers' decision to reduce the number of passing plays on which he gets after the quarterback — through two games, Matthews has dropped into coverage at a higher rate (27.5 percent) than he did during the previous four seasons. And Matthews sounded like he genuinely thinks the idea of moving him around the defense is a good one — although his reply about being off the line of scrimmage wasn't exactly a ringing endorsement of that portion of the plan.

Then, near the end of the Q&A session, it was pointed out to Matthews that he is too smart to publicly say that he is unhappy in his role, if he were indeed unhappy or concerned about it. Cue the smile and nod.

"See now, I'm too smart that I can't answer that question because what I say will be, 'Well, he's thinking this,'" Matthews replied. "I mean, listen, I'm excited that I have the opportunity to go out there, rush the passer, do everything that I can do. At the end of the day, I love making plays, I love getting after the quarterback.

"Dom and the rest of the staff will find ways for me to make plays and I think we'll continue to see that moving forward whether it's in coverage, rushing the passer, whatever it may be."

That answer was a variation on everything he'd said to that point. Not once during the conversation, it should be noted, did he say he was excited about dropping into coverage, whereas he talked about his enjoyment of getting after the quarterback repeatedly.

"I think I can do it all," Matthews said. "I think over the years, I've been known as a sack guy, but I think what's been lost in the shuffle is the fact that I can cover, I can play in space and rush the passer as well."

At another point in the conversation, Matthews said: "You see me on the left, you see me on the right, you see me in the middle, you see me covering a 7-route in one-on-one coverage. So yeah, you'll see me doing it all."

Still, it was hard not to think that the thing Matthews does best — getting after the quarterback, with 50 sacks in his first five NFL seasons — is what he'd like to be doing most. In a comprehensive breakdown of his snaps  this season as compared to past years, he's never dropped into coverage as frequently as he did against the New York Jets on Sunday, when he rushed the passer 22 times and dropped in coverage 12 times, a drop rate of 35.3 percent.

"Ultimately it's about mismatches, and I think over the years I've proven that I can rush against not only against tackles but guards, tight ends, running backs, whatever it is," Matthews said. "We're trying to present mismatches because if you do line someone up in the same spot for the same time, they're just going to figure out a way to slow you down. Ultimately we need to find ways for our playmakers to make plays, and this seems to be working and it seems to be one of them."

Matthews was later asked the same question he'd been asked at the start of organized team activity practices: If he was worried about the changes hurting his sack numbers. Here were his replies.

May 29:"I doubt I'm going to have to sacrifice statistics because I always feel like I can make my plays. But at the same time, there will be some opportunities to present some mismatches, so it may not be your traditional line-up-here, line-up-there. There might be a little more difficulty for the offense, narrowing in on certain players, especially with the personnel that we brought in, myself included moving around a little bit more and just having fun with it. It seems like we're going to have a little more fun on defense and be able to make a few more things."

Wednesday:"Will it affect my numbers? I don't know. We'll see. I was able to come away with one [sack] against Mike [Vick], thank you. But I'm not really worried about that because I think if you're looking at stats, I think if you look throughout the board, we're spreading them out, which I think is just as good. So PBUs, tackles, sacks, hurries, pressures, I think any time you can get the offense off their toes and put them on their heels and make them uncomfortable, that's what we're striving for as a defense."

Jason Wilde  wrote: