Silverstein: Packers reach agreement with Dom Capers as DC

[pbmax]

Holy bleeping bleepy bleep.

And that's the extent of my reasoned analysis. Not sure how this makes me feel. I think we could stand to get some good assistants as Capers will have good contacts and respect and its early in the hiring season.

I just saw on TV he was going to interview with the Giants. I need to watch less TV and stayed glued to PackerRats.

[Waldo]

Yes, best and safest candidate out there, BY FAR.

Well done MM.

[Bub]

Looks like the news is spreading...

http://www.greenbaypressgazette.com/article/20090118/PKR01/90118045/1058&referrer=NEWSFRONTCAROUSEL

[vince]

Here are his results as a DC from Harv. so they don't get lost at the beginning of another thread. He had little success taking over a couple expansion franchises as HC, but his accomplishments as a defensive coordinator speak for themselves. He's been particularly adept at taking over new defenses and bringing them immediate success.

1992 - Pittsburgh - 2nd (points allowed); 13th (yards allowed)
1993 - Pittsburgh - 8th (points allowed); 3rd (yards allowed)
1994 - Pittsburgh - 2nd (points allowed); 2nd (yards allowed)

1999 - Jacksonville - 1st (points allowed); 4th (yards allowed)
2000 - Jacksonville - 16th (points allowed); 16th (yards allowed)

In 1992, he was DC for a team with a new coach. Pittsburgh's defense ranked 24th in points allowed and 22nd in yards allowed in 1991.

In 1999, he took over as DC for a Jacksonville defense that ranked 17th in points allowed and 25th in yards allowed in 1998.

Great track record. I'll take him.

[Cheesehead Craig]

Here are his results as a DC from Harv. So they don't get lost at the beginning of another thread. He had little success taking over a couple expansion franchises as HC, but his accomplishments as a defensive coordinator speak for themselves. He's been particularly adept at taking over new defenses and bringing them immediate success.

1992 - Pittsburgh - 2nd (points allowed); 13th (yards allowed)
1993 - Pittsburgh - 8th (points allowed); 3rd (yards allowed)
1994 - Pittsburgh - 2nd (points allowed); 2nd (yards allowed)

1999 - Jacksonville - 1st (points allowed); 4th (yards allowed)
2000 - Jacksonville - 16th (points allowed); 16th (yards allowed)

In 1992, he was DC for a team with a new coach. Pittsburgh's defense ranked 24th in points allowed and 22nd in yards allowed in 1991.

In 1999, he took over as DC for a Jacksonville defense that ranked 17th in points allowed and 25th in yards allowed in 1998.

Great track record. I'll take him.

+1

[BallHawk]

I'm happy with the move. I don't really see how somebody could be unhappy with it. There are some that will be a bit underwhelmed, perhaps, but I don't think you can call it a "bad hire" in any sense. Winston Moss could of been seen as this by some.

I'm hoping we stick with the 4-3 but add in some different looks and schemes.

Good job, Pack.

[vince]

Capers was reportedly being (or going to be) aggressively pursued by either or both the Giants and Cowboys...

I guess the accusations of MM/TT not being able to get a "top tier" guy and Green Bay being the Siberia of the league are somewhat nullified.

[Pugger]

Bravo MM! This is indeed good news.

I wonder what they'll do with Winston Moss now....??

[vince]

Here's a good article from training camp the year he took over the Jag's D that gives good insight into the new man running the defense. Obviously, time will tell if he gets the job done, but he seems to be a perfect fit for McCarthy's coaching philosophy and style.

http://www.jacksonville.com/tu-online/stories/080899/jag_capers.html

The X factor
Dom Capers steps into critical role in the Jaguars' run toward the Super Bowl

By Pete Prisco
Times-Union sports writer

You observe him from afar, watching his every move, and something strikes you as odd. As you closely monitor Dom Capers during Jaguars practices, he looks more teacher than coach.

Rarely does his voice fly above the rest of the camp noise. Instead, it's a caring, coddling tone.

His approach is a cerebral one, offering words of encouragement much like a dad would a son.

There is no berating players, no in-your-face tirades filled with profanity.

Can this really be the guy who is bringing aggression to the Jaguars' defense?

''Don't let that fool you,'' said Carolina Panthers assistant coach Sam Mills, who played for Capers when he was the head coach of the Panthers. ''He is calm and cool and is a very good teacher. But his style of defense is the opposite of that. They will play an aggressive style.''

The Jaguars' defense has had a tissue-soft reputation for four seasons. While the offense has flourished, the defense has floundered. Last year it finished ranked 25th in the league, the lowest ranking in the team's four seasons.

Super Bowl champions don't have 25th-ranked defenses.

Enter Capers. When Tom Coughlin lost defensive coordinator Dick Jauron, who became the head coach in Chicago, Coughlin immediately turned to Capers, who had been fired less than a month earlier by the Panthers. In fact, there was some talk that Coughlin was so interested in Capers that he may have hired Capers and reassigned Jauron had Jauron not departed.

In targeting Capers, Coughlin was easily able to forget that Capers was once the coach of the rival expansion Panthers, a team that also came into the league in the 1995 season, and quickly took the lead in the expansion race. He also put aside that Capers won NFL Coach of the Year honors in 1996 for leading the Panthers to a division title and a berth in the NFC title game, the same year Coughlin took his team to the AFC Championship Game.

None of it mattered. What did matter was this:

Capers knows defense, and the Jaguars needed to improve on that side of the ball.

''He was a coach I had great respect for,'' said Coughlin. ''When Dick was leaving, I knew Dom was a guy I would be interested in having.''

What about the other way? Would Capers come to Jacksonville to work for a man who had exceeded him in terms of success as an expansion coach?

Capers wanted to be a head coach again, but lost out in his bid to land the Kansas City job. He then thought about staying out of coaching and collecting a paycheck, but he wanted back in.

The Jaguars were that in, an in with Super Bowl hopes.

''Who would have thought two years ago I'd be coaching here?'' Capers said. ''I'm so thrilled to be working for this organization. I am big on structure and discipline, and that's certainly here.''

''For him to choose Jacksonville says something about what he thought about our franchise and how he feels he can make a contribution,'' said Jaguars owner Wayne Weaver. ''I think Dom Capers is going to make a huge contribution.''

The Jaguars provide Capers with a chance to wash away the stink from a head-coaching job gone bad. After losing in the NFC Championship Game following the 1996 season, the Panthers fell quickly. Stocked with older players whose abilities dropped off, Carolina went 11-21 in the two seasons after that, leading to Capers' firing.

''I was very surprised,'' said Mills. ''I never thought he was the problem. I hated to see him go. A lot of people did. There's a great deal of respect in Carolina for Dom Capers. We know what he stands for.''

''One of the things you understand about this business is how quickly things can change,'' said Capers. ''You don't get too high with the highs and too low with the lows. Things change quickly. A couple of years I was one game from the Super Bowl and then I was out of a job. That's sometimes the coaching story.''

Capers a hot topic

This year, Capers is the coaching story. Around the league, he is a hot topic. The thinking is this: If he can improve the Jaguars defense from 25 to near the top 10, then the team should be a legitimate Super Bowl threat.

And Capers could be back as a head coach.

''He'll be a hot coaching commodity again,'' said Indianapolis Colts coach Jim Mora, who was the head coach of the New Orleans Saints when Capers worked as a secondary coach. ''The guy's too good of a coach not to be back in it.''

''My feelings on that are that I've seen too many people say this is where they want to be a year, three or five years from now,'' said Capers. ''In this business, you can't do that. You just have to do the best job you can. You have to ignore all the peripheral things and predictions. What happens down the road, happens. I just have to do my part to make sure we are successful.''

Don't doubt him.

''With the personnel on this team, and Dom's coaching, we can be very good,'' said safety Carnell Lake, who signed with the Jaguars as a free agent after 10 seasons with the Steelers. ''Can we be top 10 good? I think so.''

''He'll make them better,'' said Mills. ''That I know.''

''We certainly hope all that is true,'' said Coughlin. ''That's not for me to say. I know he will be an important part of our success.''

If track record is an indicator, the defense should have success under Capers. In his three seasons as defensive coordinator of the Pittsburgh Steelers from 1992-94, prior to landing the Carolina job, Capers' defenses finished highly ranked in a bunch of statistical categories.

They were always among the leaders in takeaways, and his 1994 group finished as the second best defense in the league while leading in sacks. In his three seasons as coordinator of the Steelers, no other defense gave up fewer points.
The secret? An aggressive style that became known as Blitzburgh.

''It is an aggressive defense,'' said Lake, who was Pro Bowl player for Capers with the Steelers. ''The idea is to first stop the run, then get after the quarterback with a lot of different blitzes. That brings confusion, which in turn creates turnovers.''

''Every player on the defense can rush the quarterback,'' said Mills. ''There are blitzes for everyone. That's what makes it so successful. You never know who is coming.''

Unlike the all-out blitzes of a coach like Buddy Ryan when he was with the Chicago Bears and Philadelphia Eagles, Capers' defense is built on the zone blitz. What that means is if one player blitzes, another may drop out into coverage.

It is essentially blitz and replace. Say a linebacker blitzes, then maybe a defensive lineman will drop into coverage, the idea being the offensive linemen may get confused, leading to a missed block. Or the quarterback may miss a read and throw into the midsection of the dropping lineman.

It is an attack defense that is filled with caution.

''It's not like the old Bears who used to sell out every play,'' said Mills. ''There's a lot of thinking involved.''

''It's going to be an attack defense,'' said Coughlin, who has turned over the defense to Capers. ''We want to be in attack mode a great deal of the time. In order to do that, assignment football on the part of everybody has to be improved. We have to be a team that is accountable. A lot of our people have made errors in the past when we have blitzed, and the results have not been good.''

Every year under Jauron, the Jaguars have said they were prepared to attack more. They even showed it the last two preseasons, giving hope that finally the passive style would be passe.

Then when the season started, the blitzing was gone. And so was the pressure. The Jaguars had just 30 sacks last season, tying them with Tennessee for 28th in the league.

''The quarterback has to be pressured,'' said Coughlin. ''They're too good to just sit back there with time.''

''It's a lot harder for a team to prepare when a defense gives you a lot of looks,'' said Mora. ''That's what Dom's defenses give you.''

Unlike his defenses in Pittsburgh and Carolina, Capers will use a four-man front instead of a 3-4. That's because that's the Coughlin way, even though Capers did use some 4-3 last season in Carolina.

The change up front is one of the few differences with this defense, but with a wrinkle here and there -- like standing up end Tony Brackens or putting down linebacker Bryce Paup -- the defensive look can change in a hurry.

You will also see a lot of 3-4 from the Jaguars, thus a lot of hybrid looks.

''So many times those things are overrated,'' said Capers. ''It's still the same personnel, just being used differently.''

''It still comes down to the players,'' said Mora. ''No matter what style you use, it still comes down to personnel.''

It will be sometime into the preseason, Capers said, before he knows if he has the right personnel to run his zone-blitz successfully. If he does, you can expect a lot more pressure on the quarterback, which has the Jaguars players excited.

''That brings an attitude,'' said cornerback Aaron Beasley. ''Guys want to be aggressive. That's what defense is all about. This style is becoming contagious.''

Don't expect all-out attacking all the time, however.

"It's a mistake on your part if you think it's just going to be one form of pressure defense after another,'' said Coughlin. ''That's not going to be the case. In the right situations, with the right athletes involved, we certainly want to be as aggressive as we can without hurting our football team.''

The one question about the zone blitz, however, is the thinking around the league that offenses have caught up to it. Carolina (30th) and Cincinnati (28th) were two of the lowest-ranked defenses in the league using that style. Only Pittsburgh, which finished ranked 12th, had success with it.

''I hope they haven't because we're running it,'' said Mora, who hired Capers' former defensive coordinator Vic Fangio to run his defense this season. ''People do catch up to things, so you do have to adjust.''

''The zone blitz, from my perspective, it's an evolving defense,'' said Lake. ''Since it started, it has evolved and it will continue to evolve. You have to make slight changes. You have to tweak it a bit. That's where Dom is so important.''

'Involved in everything'

The teacher lives by details. So much so that since 1981 Capers has kept notebooks filled with the date, time and details about every event in his day, noting them in leather-bound books he replaces each year.

He can tell you what he did in 1983 on this date 10 years ago at 10 p.m. In the books he writes down everything from what he ate for lunch to things that caught his attention on the practice field.

''He has it down to the last detail, which also makes him a great coach,'' said Mora. ''He is so well prepared.''

''He's so well organized and he's a good communicator,'' said Steelers coach Bill Cowher, Capers' boss in Pittsburgh. ''Those are two skills very important in coaching.''

He is, like Coughlin, a tireless worker. With the Panthers, he slept in his office three nights a week sometimes, always trying to make those nights coincide with the nights his wife, who is a flight attendant, was flying. He is unsure if he will sleep at the office with the Jaguars, but you can bet he will.

''I never want to say I didn't do everything possible to win,'' said Capers.

Thus, the teaching. It is the Capers way.

''He's an excellent teacher,'' said Mora. ''He presents his information in an organized way and has a lot of patience. He doesn't lose his cool. That's important in teaching.''

''That's what the game is all about,'' said Capers. ''You have to be a good teacher. It comes down to communication. Different guys learn different ways. That's the interesting thing. Getting to know guys' hot buttons. Once you do that, the teaching is easy.''

''I love the way he coaches,'' said Beasley. ''It's different than last year. Jauron let the coaches do their jobs. With Capers, he's involved in everything. He's in all the meetings. If you have any questions, he's the man to ask. And he's always low-key about the way he does things.''

That won't change, either. Even if he turns the Jaguars defense into a top 10 team, Capers will remain Capers.

Even tempered, it would seem to be a style that would conflict with his defensive ways.

But it has worked.

If it works again, the teacher could very well be heading his own class in the next millennium -- as a head coach again in the NFL.

[Lurker64]

Good article Vince. I'm feeling good about the Capers hire.

[channtheman]

Very nice article. I'm getting really excited now. He seems like a great coach and teacher and also a great husband. Very cool.

[Kiwon]

Well, one thing is for sure, he'll be an upgrade to what the Packers had on the sidelines this year.

[packers11]

https://www.rotoworld.com

Packers hired Dom Capers as defensive coordinator.

He chose the Pack over the Giants. The Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel expects Capers to run a "hybrid" scheme, but he may ultimately lean towards a 3-4. The Packers have enough linebackers and space eaters up front for the three-man front, although it may take away from LE Aaron Kampman's strengths. Green Bay will keep man-to-man coverage in the secondary.

[HarveyWallbangers]

Maybe we can get Julius Peppers now, and make him a 3-4 OLB.


I was higher on Capers than Nolan and Williams, so I'm happy. I'm intrigued by a possible move to the 3-4.

[Partial]

Capers was reportedly being (or going to be) aggressively pursued by either or both the Giants and Cowboys...

I guess the accusations of MM/TT not being able to get a "top tier" guy and Green Bay being the Siberia of the league are somewhat nullified.

Very good news indeed! This is a very good hiring for M3 in my opinion. Hopefully he ranked #1 over Nolan and Williams, not number 3. If he did in fact rank #1, then kudos to MM for doing due diligence and not settling for a name.