Rodgers, Matthews listed questionable

GREEN BAY – The most irreplaceable players for the Green Bay Packers offense and defense were listed questionable for Sunday's game against the Houston Texans.

Quarterback Aaron Rodgers (hamstring) and outside linebacker Clay Matthews (shoulder) have been limited in practice this week, but should be on track to be available.

Coach Mike McCarthy said Wednesday he expects both to play against the Texans. McCarthy said Friday morning he's happy with the work they got done in practice this week.

"Aaron looked good," McCarthy said. "We had a set number of reps for him to take in the unit period. That went well. Then he focused on the rehab part of it. Everything went as expected."

On Matthews, McCarthy said Friday morning: "Looked good. Same thing (as Rodgers). Just in the portion of practice that you (the media) were in there for, the intensity didn’t get much higher than that the rest of the way. He did everything."

Of more intrigue may be whether the Packers can have more depth at inside linebacker Sunday. Jake Ryan was listed as questionable, as was rookie Blake Martinez. If one of them returns against the Texans, it could allow the Packers to move Matthews to outside linebacker.

McCarthy said Saturday will be key for injured players, even more than usual. With the Packers coming off consecutive night games on the road, including a short week with a Monday night game in Philadelphia, McCarthy pushed back some of the practice workload to Saturday.

We’re going to do more Saturday. We basically had taken a period or two out of Thursday’s practice and put it in Saturday’s.

"We’re going to do more Saturday," McCarthy said. "We basically had taken a period or two out of Thursday’s practice and put it in Saturday’s."