Green Bay Packers’ head coach Mike McCarthy followed the words of one of his mentors who said “hire slow” and in the end believes he got the man who is a perfect fit to lead the Green Bay Packers’ defense when he hired Dom Capers Sunday. To say I’m excited about the move would be an understatement. I think all Packers’ fans were looking for a proven defensive coordinator to get the job and in the end Capers might just be the best of the bunch. The Packers previously lost out on guys like Mike Nolan and Gregg Williams, although I doubt McCarthy offered either one the job.
Even though the Eagles lost Sunday it appears McCarthy had no interest in assistant Sean McDermott. McCarthy’s press conference today made that clear when he said he wanted experience and even more importantly the 3-4 defense. The hiring of Capers, I think, anyways, proves that McCarthy has some respect in NFL coaching circles. Of course it doesn’t hurt that the Packers apparently opened the check book for Capers. While he is still being paid by Miami from a couple of years ago making the Packers exact number not exactly sure in 2009, it is believed he will be paid over $2 million in 2010. When he was in Miami as defensive coordinator he was making $2.6 million and was the highest paid assistant coach along with new New Orleans Saints’ defensive coordinator Williams.
Capers turned into a hot item in recent days and the Packers were able to land him which I think says a lot about the Packers still being able to attract top ranked coaches and players. For McCarthy, this is huge. He gets a guy that he can turn the defense over to and not have to worry about. Even with last years’ crappy defense McCarthy’s offense had a 4,000 passer, two 1.000 yard receivers and a 1.000 yard rusher. No wonder Capers was interested in coming to Green Bay. With Aaron Rodgers proving he is a quarterback with a huge future barring injury, the job has to be at least a little attractive.
With Capers comes the 3-4 defense. I am most excited about that. I think people say the Packers’ linebackers can’t play it because all they’ve seen of the Packers’ linebackers has been the outdated Jim Bates’s scheme. I think Nick Barnett, A.J. Hawk and even Brady Poppinga, maybe Poppinga the most with his previous pass rushing skills from college, will really benefit from this switch. And I think Ryan Pickett is perfect for the nose tackle. He certainly was nothing special where he was at. McCarthy seemed to hint that Aaron Kampman might will be excited about the defense and seemed to insinuate he may play some linebacker. Interesting.
Going to be a fun offseason now. Let’s see what Ted Thompson can do to upgrade the talent and who Capers hires as assistant coaches. I’ll be in touch.