GREEN BAY – A.J. Hawk isn’t in the mood for drama.
But if the Green Bay Packers veteran inside linebacker was being honest – which he may or may not have been Thursday about the current state of his health, but more on that in a minute – he would likely say that he wants to be on the field for every defensive snap of every game.
He would want to play in the base 3-4 defense – which is all he’s doing at the moment – as well as in the nickel and dime defenses.
What Hawk does not want, though, is for his reduced playing time to be a distraction to a team that’s 10-3 and chugging toward the NFC playoffs with hopes for the conference’s No. 1 seed and homefield advantage throughout the postseason.
He also didn’t want to face reporters at his locker Thursday on the subject – not because he was afraid of being asked tough questions or having negative things written about him, but because he felt his reduced playing time shouldn’t be newsworthy given that the team has won nine of its last 10 games.
“You don’t need to sit there and whine about it, talk about it. It doesn’t matter. No one cares,” Hawk told reporters after practice Thursday. “This team is playing really well. That’s why I was hesitant to even come in here [to the locker room]. Nothing is about me. It shouldn’t be about me. It’s dumb to talk about me. We’re 10-3.
“I shouldn’t be a storyline.”
Hawk, who rarely comes into the locker room for media access periods and has made it clear throughout his career that he couldn’t care less about what is written or said about him, had declined recent interview requests through the team’s public relations department, and while all NFL contracts require players to make themselves available to the media, Hawk has generally limited his interviews to post-game conversations at his locker and by-request one-on-one sessions. He’s never been truculent with the media; he just doesn’t need it.
But at the urging of PR staffer Tom Fanning Thursday, Hawk came into the locker room and spoke with reporters about the topic they all wanted to ask him about – his decreased role in the defense.
The franchise’s all-time leader in tackles played just eight of 68 snaps in Monday night’s 43-37 victory over the Atlanta Falcons, and played only 26 of 56 snaps against New England a week earlier. To understand the significance of his reduced role, despite playing only 34 of 124 snaps (27.4 percent) the past two games, he’s still played the second-most snaps of any defensive player on the roster, with 784. (Only cornerback Tramon Williams, with 845, has played more.)
Hawk has been relegated to only playing in the team’s 3-4 base defense, although defensive coordinator Dom Capers insisted Thursday afternoon that Hawk could still see action in the nickel defense, where he’d been playing before the Patriots and Falcons games.
Capers said the move of Clay Matthews to inside linebacker has cut into Hawk’s playing time there – even though the two played in tandem inside in the nickel until the Patriots game, and it’s been second-year man Sam Barrington working in Hawk’s place in the nickel the past two weeks. According to Capers, part of the reasoning for altering Hawk’s role was his high snap counts earlier in the season.
“For about a three-week period, A.J. was playing 25, 30 more plays than anybody else on defense. So you’re talking about one of our veteran players, and you start to get concerned about, ‘Where’s he going to be, playing that many plays during the month of December or afterwards?’” Capers said. “Obviously it was a big move to put Clay in[side], so Clay’s taken some of those reps off of him.
“I feel good about where A.J. is right now. Because I think this: What he’s played the last couple weeks, he’s going to be a lot fresher, and you’re going to get 25, 30 good plays as opposed to if he’s playing 70 and getting worn down.”
Capers also didn’t rule out the possibility of Hawk seeing more action in sub packages as the season winds down.
“I think you’ll see us play some [nickel] with him,” Capers said.
Meanwhile, the 30-year-old Hawk disputed the notion that he is playing through an undisclosed injury, which his good friend Aaron Rodgers suggested during his weekly radio show Tuesday. Hawk, who has played in 139 of a possible 141 regular-season games since the Packers took him with the No. 5 overall pick in the 2006 NFL Draft, claimed he is not hurt.
“Aaron, I don’t listen to his radio show, 🇸🇴 I didn’t hear what he said,” Hawk said. “I’m not hurt. My body has bounced back every week. Like I said, I feel better older than I did younger. I think he was just trying to be supportive of a friend or teammate.”
Rodgers, whose exact words were that Hawk has “been dealing with 🅰 body that hasn’t been responding I think as well as he wanted it to at times this year,” predicted that Hawk would deny that he’s less than 100 percent because he wouldn’t want to use the injury as an excuse.
“Of course not,” Rodgers said. “He’s one of the toughest guys I’ve ever played with. He’s hands-down one of the greatest warriors — football warriors — that I’ve played with. I mean, the guy has dealt with a ton of injuries over his time and played through them and played really well through them. He’s been a great Packer for so many years and just embodies what it means to be a Packer.
“[He’s] a great teammate, a great player and really, really great in the community with the things that he supports and his foundation, and just the way that he conducts himself makes all Packer fans proud. He’s been a great teammate in the locker room. Nothing’s changed with him. He’s just continuing to be ready and play whatever role he’s asked to play.”
Hawk’s altered status does put his future with the team in doubt. After accepting a pay cut before the 2013 season, he’s set to earn $3.5 million in salary and bonuses in 2015, the last year of his contract. The Packers would absorb a $1.6 million salary-cap hit in 2015 if they released him.
“I've been preparing since the day I walked in here for the day I get cut,” Hawk said. “I've been cut before (in March 2011, although he was almost immediately re-signed, so whenever they decide to let me roll, that's something I've been preparing for since I was 21 basically, when I get drafted.
“So I don't think I let like my mind wander or anything towards what could happen. That's not up to me, but try to hopefully get another ring at least before they give me the boot.”
Hawk, who enters Sunday’s game at Buffalo second on the team in tackles with 83, said he believes he has a lot of football left, even if it ends up being played elsewhere after this season.
“I want to play as long as I can,” he said. “I feel good. Of course, anyone would dream to have your whole career with the Packers. That's anybody's dream I think as a kid. The reality is that's pretty tough to do. If that happens, I'd be pumped and it would be my dream come true, but if not, I feel like I still can play and if another team would give you a shot, how are you going to turn it down? I can only speak for right now. I can't speak for whenever that time may be.”
Jason Wilde wrote: