INDIANAPOLIS -- First he was an outside linebacker. Then he was an inside linebacker. And then he was an outside linebacker again.

So what is Clay Matthews to the Green Bay Packers these days?

“Call him whatever you want,” coach Mike McCarthy said at the NFL scouting combine. “He’ll play inside, he’ll play outside. We’ve kind of gone back and forth about what position he lines up at.”

Coach Mike McCarthy said the Packers will continue to move Clay Matthews around in 2017. Ronald C. Modra/Sports Imagery/ Getty Images

It was a little more than a year ago when McCarthy declared it was best for Matthews to return to his natural outside-linebacker spot after spending all of 2015 and the second half of 2014 at inside linebacker.

The desired results didn’t exactly follow. Matthews recorded a career-low five sacks and was banged up again. He missed four games because of ankle and hamstring injuries and then was limited late in the regular season by a separated shoulder.

The reality, however, was that Matthews still moved around last season and even started two games at inside linebacker because of injuries to Blake Martinez and Jake Ryan.

It could be more of the same in 2017 for Matthews, who remains a key part of the Packers’ defense even though he will turn 31 on May 14.

“It’s important for us to keep moving Clay around,” McCarthy said. “He can’t line up in one position, we’re not taking advantage of his talents, his skill set. We need to continue to do that to create targeting problems for the offense. I don’t know how else to keep saying it."

Then McCarthy asked for suggestions on what to call Matthews’ position.

“I’m lost for words,” McCarthy said.

When "rover" was suggested, McCarthy said: “I was thinking ‘monster’ or ‘wildcat’ [but] he’s a ‘rover’ now.”

Still, it might be better for Matthews if the Packers played him more at inside linebacker. The season and a half he spent there was the healthiest stretch of his career. He didn’t miss a single game. The only other years he played in all 16 regular-season games came as a rookie in 2009.

Matthews admitted he might be more susceptible to injuries at outside linebacker, which is his preferred position.

“Every play is a full-speed, ballistic get-off, so yeah, it can wear on you,” Matthews said last season. “Especially with the success we’ve had in the run game, teams are going to pass it 40, 50 times a game. But each position is taxing in its own right; especially at that elephant outside-linebacker position, every snap is a one-on-one battle.”

McCarthy agreed.

“If you want to really get into the dynamics of it, playing outside linebacker there’s different stress movements that you have to do compared to inside,” McCarthy said. “Is that part of it? It might be. But once again, Clay needs to play inside and outside and move around.”