While staying at NFC North, Dom Capers is switching teams in 2021. After spending the 2020 season as a senior defensive assistant to the Vikings, Capers accepted the same role with the Lions, the team announced on Friday.
Capers, 70, also played that role in Jacksonville during the 2019 season. Capers, the first coach in the history of the Carolina Panthers, is preparing to enter his 33rd season in the NFL after joining the league with the Saints in 1986. Capers , who was also the first coach in Texas history, won a Super Bowl as the Packers’ defensive coordinator in 2010.
After serving as a Saints defense coach from 1986-91, Capers was named Bill Cowher’s first defensive coordinator in Pittsburgh in 1992. In that season, the Steelers went from 22nd to 2nd place in the NFL in defense, as Pittsburgh won at least 11 games in a season for the first time since 1979. The Steelers’ defense continued to be one of the NFL’s best units for the next two years, before Capers left Pittsburgh to lead the Panthers expansion in 1995.
In 1996, Capers took the Panthers to the NFC Championship Game in just its second year of existence. His success in Carolina did not last long, however, with Capers being fired after consecutive losing seasons. He quickly resurfaced in Jacksonville, serving as the team’s defensive coordinator in 1999, while helping the Jaguars brag about the league’s highest-scoring defense en route to an AFC Championship Game appearance.
Capers coached his second expansion team in 2002, serving as the Texans’ head coach for four seasons. He then spent two seasons as a Miami defensive coordinator before accepting the same position with the Packers, winning a Super Bowl during his second season at Green Bay. After almost a decade with the Packers, he was not hired by the former coach of the Green Bay Mike McCarthy after the 2017 season. Mike Pettine, who replaced Capers at Green Bay, will not have his contract renewed after Green Bay’s loss to Tampa Bay in the NFC Championship Game.
During his career, Capers worked with several defensive Hall of Fame / All-Pro players, including former Steelers defender Rod Woodson, former Pittsburgh / Carolina linebacker Kevin Greene, Panthers linebacker Sam Mills, linebacker Dolphins Zach Thomas, former Packers linebacker Clay Matthews, and former Packers defender, Charles Woodson.
In Detroit, Capers will meet with new Lions defender coach Mark Brunell, who was the defender of the Jaguars during Capers’ first stop in Jacksonville.
Earlier this month, Lions appointed Dan Campbell as their new head coach. Detroit also named Brad Holmes its new general manager.
Other Lions coach hires include: former Chargers head coach Anthony Lynn (offensive coordinator), Aaron Glenn (defensive coordinator), Dave Fipp (special team coordinator), former Lions Pro Bowl linebacker Chris Speilman (assistant special), Duce Staley (running back trainer) and Mark DeLeone (internal linebacker trainer).