GREEN BAY, Wis. — Mike McCarthy wants to take the Green Bay Packers defense in a new direction, and the coach believes Dom Capers is the right man for the renovation project.
McCarthy hired Capers as defensive coordinator Monday afternoon. He said the team will switch from a 4-3 defense, which utilizes four down linemen and three linebackers, to Capers’ specialty, the 3-4 defense, which uses three linemen and four linebackers.
A news conference with Capers was scheduled for Tuesday morning.
McCarthy said one of the reasons he wants to change the Packers’ defensive scheme is the challenges the offensive-minded coach had in trying to game-plan against it.
“From an offensive standpoint, it creates targeting problems,” McCarthy said Monday, announcing Capers’ hiring after the two reached an agreement in principle Sunday night. “That doesn’t mean we won’t line up in a four-man front (sometimes). We’ll move in and out of both four-man and three-man fronts.
“But it’s an excellent run defense (and it) creates pass rush on the quarterback. From an offensive standpoint … it really cuts the menu of the offense probably in half of what you would normally do (against) a four-man front.”
The Denver Broncos are also planning to switch to the 3-4 next year under new coach Josh McDaniels, a former Patriots assistant.
The Packers haven’t had the 3-4 as their primary defense since 1991, when coordinator Hank Bullough used it under coach Lindy Infante. When Mike Holmgren arrived in 1992, coordinator Ray Rhodes employed both 3-4 and 4-3 schemes, using Tony Bennett as both a defensive end and right outside linebacker. Upon Fritz Shurmur’s arrival in 1994, the Packers switched full-time to a true 4-3 defense and have utilized variations of that scheme since.
The 58-year-old Capers, the former Carolina Panthers and Houston Texans head coach who spent last season as a special assistant and secondary coach with the Patriots, replaces Bob Sanders, whom McCarthy fired Jan. 5, along with most of the defensive position coaches.
Capers interviewed with McCarthy on Friday and Saturday, after McCarthy had interviewed ex-49ers coach Mike Nolan, longtime NFL defensive coordinator Gregg Williams and former New Orleans Saints coach and St. Louis Rams interim coach Jim Haslett.
McCarthy wouldn’t confirm that Packers assistant head coach/linebackers coach Winston Moss interviewed for the coordinator job, saying only that Moss would return in his same capacity next season.
“I think this will be an excellent pairing, with Dom Capers and Winston Moss on defense,” McCarthy said.
McCarthy said one of his top priorities was hiring someone with defensive coordinator experience, and Capers certainly fits that bill, having broken into the NFL coaching ranks in 1986. While McCarthy preferred a 3-4 defense, he said he didn’t rule out staying with a 4-3.
“The 3-4 defense was the primary target, (but) I was still open to the 4-3,” McCarthy said.
Capers has built a reputation as one of the league’s finest defensive minds, beginning as the Pittsburgh Steelers’ defensive coordinator from 1992-94 before becoming the expansion Panthers’ first coach in 1995.
After being fired after four years with the Panthers, he spent 1999 and 2000 as the Jacksonville Jaguars’ defensive coordinator before another expansion team, the Texans, hired him in 2001.
The Texans fired him following the 2005 season, and Capers spent the next two years in charge of the Miami Dolphins’ defense before moving on to the Patriots after the Dolphins’ 1-15 season in 2007.
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