I have called for Capers to be fired in the past, so I am anything but an ardent Capers defender. My first serious post on this thread cited the stats of Capers’ Packers Ds that provide evidence which answered the question posed by the thread. Of course Capers isn't blameless for the problems on D, but those who post as though the only problem on that side of the ball is Dom Capers are misguided IMO. Thompson is responsible for the talent acquisition and one easy example of his failure in that regard is having no better option than MD Jennings at safety. That wasn’t Capers’ fault. Thompson and to some degree McCarthy share the blame of originally hiring and now retaining a DC whose schemes emphasize experience: We all know a central tenant of Thompson’s MO is having perpetually young teams and that poses an ongoing conflict to some degree. But the hiring did work very well for the first two seasons. And of course Capers is ultimately responsible for his assistants, and together they are responsible for in-game adjustments, how well or poorly the team tackles, and the “communication” problems we have witnessed during his tenure. So, there’s blame to go around. IMO only insiders who know the interaction of all the “players” (Thompson, McCarthy, Capers, etc.) can precisely assign blame for each shortcoming. Are you saying Capers didn’t give Jones a chance to start at DE in the base? That wasn’t the problem; the problem was Jones wasn’t stout enough vs. the run. What he has been capable of so far is providing pressure on the QB. If you are assigning blame regarding Jones I would start with Thompson and staff evaluating him as a full-time DE in the 3-4. I don’t think the problem was Capers deciding without evidence that Jones was ill-suited for DE in the base.
As far as talent acquisition I agree Guion was a good signing, one that was necessary because of the lack of other options. Here are Thompson’s draft picks on the DL since Capers signed on in January of 2009:
Year: Round. #overall pick
2009: 1. #9 BJ Raji NT; 6. #182 Jarius Wynn DE
2010: 2. #56 Mike Neal DL; 7. #230 C.J. Wilson DE
2011: 7. #233 Lawrence Guy DT
2012: 2. #51 Jerel Worthy DT; 4. #132 Mike Daniels DT
2013: 1. #26 Datone Jones DE; 5. #167 Josh Boyd DT
2014: 3. #85 Khyri Thornton DT
2015: 6. #210 Christian Ringo DE
Many of us have, and have had questions about Raji for the past few seasons (BTW you don’t blame Capers for Raji not recording a tackle in preseason, do you?). In seven drafts two first rounders, two second rounders and a third rounder. It’s not as if Thompson has ignored DL, but look at the ‘opportunity cost’ of most of those picks. Of all those picks the most important player this season may be the fourth rounder.
I too am more optimistic about the DL than I have been in the past; I too have posted about the progress of Pennel and I think Gaston has considerable upside. But I believe the subject we’re assessing the job Capers has done. Which of the two, Whitt or Trgovac has been given more talent to work with? How does Capers' scheme - no matter what you think of it - impact the play of CBs vs. DL? IMO it looks more like a preconceived idea to give Whitt "all" the credit for CB play but believing "Daniels best coaching came at Iowa". How often and how closely have you observed Daniels and Trgo's relationship?
