Sunshine Packer is spot-on questioning the talent of the players Capers has to work with. It can't be dismissed as though the problem is Capers' exclusively.
Amongst Thompson, the coaching staff and the players it's a bit like "Rock, Paper, Scissors." If the talent is performing inadequately is it the GM, coaches, or the players that should be held most accountable? Accountability will vary from individual player to individual player but, in general, the overall dearth of impact players on this defense could be a clue. Maybe too many of them cannot be "coached-up."
Personally, I feel Thompson relies too heavily on the draft and UDFA players. Not exercising all available options gives him less of a margin between success and failure when compared to a GM who will consider exercising all his options. I'm not absolving Capers of any accountability for his part in calling plays that may put players in situations where they fail. But Capers cannot turn chicken stuff into chicken salad, either. Nor can any of the other coaches.
So, when a DB is slow to react, is slow afoot with little or no recovery speed, slow "upstairs" and struggles mightily to tackle consistently, consider who is most responsible for bringing him to the team. The same holds true when a TE - any TE - cannot block to save his life.
I'm not confident that coaches anywhere in the NFL could ever turn some of these current players on the Packer roster into bonafide impact players, let alone average players at their respective positions. JAGS maybe. For some reason drafting impact players for this defense seems to have been mostly a crap-shoot for Thompson over the past decade. It's not his forte, apparently.
Some holes on a roster may need to be addressed in FA. Unfortunately, it's the road rarely traveled in Green Bay, even when all other avenues fall short.
