Long time coach Dom Capers has been picked to replace Bob Sanders as Green Bay’s defensive co-ordinator, McCarthy announced Monday.  Capers brings 20 years of NFL experience as both a co-ordinator as well as a head coach to the table. 

McCarthy is getting a coach who utilizes a 3-4 system the Pittsburgh Steelers and Baltimore Ravens used in their AFC Championship Game battle Sunday.  He also ran a 4-3 in Jacksonville under coach Tom Coughlin and a mix 3-4/4-3 under Miami coach Nick Saban and New England coach Bill Belichick.  Right now the Packers don’t currently field a team capable of running the 3-4 defense so it should be an interesting off season which could be very dependent from a personnel standpoint on which defense the Packers choose to use.

Capers has had some poor defensive units, but he has also had some impressive ones.  In three seasons in Pittsburgh, the defense ranked 13th, third and second. In Carolina, they ranked 10th, 15th and 30th. In Jacksonville, they ranked fourth and 12th and in Miami they ranked fourth and 23rd.

In our opinion it is a good hire.  In Capers the Packers get a battle tested co-ordinator who has seen it all.  If the Packers can get their offense playing to it top five potential and a top 15 defense, they could once again be in contention for the NFC title.

That really is the biggest question so far for the Green Bay Packers, a choice that will no doubt effect the coaching tenure of Mike McCarthy and the early success of Quarterback Aaron Rodgers.  Coach McCarthy and General Manager Ted Thompson appeared to lose out on bids for two very capable coordinators earlier this week.  In true Thompson regime style the Packers didn’t make overly strong pushes for Mike Nolan (now in Denver) or Gregg Williams (now in New Orleans) , at least not strong enough to lure them in had that been the desired effect.  Now all eyes turn to Jim Haslett, McCarthy’s former boss in New Orleans while Haslett was coaching there.

Haslett is certainly capable enough at coaching players, but his defensive reputation seems to be better than his actual record.  Haslett’s Ram defense was near the bottom of the league last year and his New Orleans defenses were always average.  Perhaps Thompson and McCarthy believe they have a team that could compete for a championship with just a solid, average defense and a dominating offense.  With the success the Cardinals are having in the playoffs right now it’s hard to argue with them. 

If the Packers don’t jump on a known commodity like Haslet then it may indicate they are waiting for an assistant with a current playoff team.  Since NFL rules don’t allow for teams to communicate with coaches during the season, they will have to wait until that coach’s team is eliminated.  A lot of chatter is being generated about Philadephia assistant Sean McDermott, a younger guy who has trained under legendary blitz happy coach Jim Johnson for the last decade.  Either way we should see something very soon.