GREEN BAY, Wis. -- It’s not as major as Clay Matthews’ move to inside linebacker last season, but Datone Jones’ role in the Green Bay Packers defense has changed.
The former first-round pick has added outside linebacker to his responsibilities.
A defensive end by trade, the 6-foot-4, 285-pound third-year pro was seen going through drills with Matthews’ old position group during practice this week.
Defensive coordinator Dom Capers unveiled a new-look defensive front in last Sunday's loss to the Detroit Lions that featured Jones on one end of the line and outside linebacker Nick Perry on the other with tackles B.J. Raji and Mike Daniels on the inside. In his old role, Jones would have played one of those two inside spots in obvious passing situations but not on the outside.
“He’s definitely athletic enough to do it,” defensive line coach Mike Trgovac said. “When we play that deal, we’re basically a 4-3 team -- or a four-front team. There’s a lot of guys his size playing in the league.”
Capers indicated that likely would continue this Sunday against the Minnesota Vikings.
“Well, he’s really swinging in both ways,” Capers said. “He’ll work with Trgo on certain things and he’ll work with [linebackers coach] Winston [Moss] on other things. We’re trying to develop that. Probably last week was the first step. We thought the week before that we probably wanted to get Datone a few more reps, try to round out the reps in terms of the guys because he was a little low a week before.”
It’s also an effort to boost the pass rush, which has gone three straight games without a sack. Although Jones has only one sack this season, in the Oct. 18 win over the San Diego Chargers, he ranks third on the team in quarterback hits (with eight) behind Matthews (11) and Daniels (10) despite missing the season opener because of a one-game suspension.
It’s not the first time Jones has bounced outside, but the last time was out of necessity. In the 2013 playoff loss to the San Francisco 49ers, injuries forced Jones to play outside linebacker.
“Some of his best rushes are from outside,” Trgovac said. “He absolutely can help us in both of those regards. It was time to do that. We felt like his development was far enough along at his position where he could go and do some more things at another position.”
Jones, the 26th overall pick in 2013, has made only a minimal impact in his first 2½ seasons. Drafted to be a three-down player, Jones has essentially been relegated only to snaps in the third-down dime package. He has just six sacks in 37 career regular-season games.
“We just felt like he’s a good football player, and we play a lot of nickel,” Trgovac said. “When you play a lot of nickel, the four guys that I have are bigger guys than him, so it’s just a way to get him in there. And he’s still going down inside for us.
“He’s probably at that level in his development where he understands [the defense] now. It might have been too early to do it last year because he didn’t really know the whole defense.”