The Green Bay Packers are expected to finally purge themselves of defensive coordinator Dom Capers. Whether that comes via a firing or “retirement” remains to be seen.
The question then becomes who replaces him?
It appears there will be no shortage of qualified candidates. However, the name we hear the most is Vic Fangio. The Chicago Bears will be cleaning house on Monday. Fangio served as the Bears defensive coordinator for the past three years, so he will be a free agent.
Fangio has built a quality defense for the Bears. They are the No. 8 defense in the league. Fangio is probably best known as the defensive coordinator for the San Francisco 49ers under Jim Harbaugh. In his four seasons with the 49ers, Fangio fielded a top-five defense in each season.
Of course, the cupboard wasn’t exactly bare of defensive talent in San Francisco. While it isn’t bare in Green Bay, the Packers still need to make some personnel improvements on that side of the ball.
Will whoever the general manager of the team is be willing and able to make those improvements? That’s the next question.
If Fangio isn’t the guy for the Packers, there are some other interesting names that could be available.
It appears Marvin Lewis’ time as coach of the Cincinnati Bengals is up. His contract has run out and rumors have Lewis and the Bengals parting ways. If that is the case and Lewis isn’t a candidate for another top job, he could go back to the coordinator ranks. Lewis was the coordinator of the vaunted 2000 Baltimore Ravens’ defense.
Like Lewis, Los Angeles Chargers defensive coordinator Gus Bradley has a contract that expires at season’s end. He’s only been in L.A. for a season, but Bradley previously coordinated Pete Carroll’s better defenses with the Seattle Seahawks. They fielded top-10 units in two of his four seasons as defensive coordinator.
There are some wild cards here too. Jack Del Rio was let go by the Oakland Raiders. He coordinated defenses for Denver and Carolina. There’s also interim New York Giants coach Steve Spagnuolo, who has twice served as the team’s defensive coordinator. It’s believed he will get a real shot at keeping the top job in New York, however.
Lewis’s mindset is way too ingrained with losing, don’t bring that stench here. I don’t care what he did with a stacked Ravens defense 17 years ago.
But then again, can we bury Capers first?
Lewis would be a mistake, Fangio is iffy, if Gus Bradley was available(?) I would grab Bradley without pause and bury Capers after the fact. Happy new year.
Have you seen Adams contract breakdown?
http://www.spotrac.com/nfl/green-bay-packers/davante-adams-14463/
Yea…it’s about what i expected. Although 7.2 million dead cash isn’t exactly an opt out year, especially with this team. Cap hit is pretty high for 2020-21.
But even if Adams fell on his face after 2 years, he’ll pocket 32 million. Not bad for a dude that hasn’t reached 1,000 yards yet. If i budgeted correctly, i could scrape by on that…the rest of my life.
Not bad for a triple concussee (is that a word ?)….
Problem w concussions is that the effects are cummulative and you are more susceptible to getting another w even “minor” hits. Not to mention the lifelong risks. Recall Stan Humphries retiring from Chargers after 3rd or 4th dinger on advice of MD.
I’m by far not a personnel expert when it comes to football, but as a novice I am very unimpressed with Thompson and McCarthy. It seems like it was Favre and Rodgers who made them look good, but where were the Super Bowls? I say replace them all starting with Murphy!
How about Vic Damone? A dead guy running a defense built by another dead guy would be entertaining!
Del rio and pagano gone. Pagano didn’t have his qb but he’s gone. Why does MM and the rest of management continue to get a free pass? It’s time for a real owner.
Looking at the NFC playoff Phi looking at the NFC playoff field, it’s frustrating and pisses me off more because we know min and Carolina are shit. After watching New Orleans today and seeing them earlier in the season, they are nothing great. Atlanta has looked average to bad (except vs gb). The rams o is explosive but lacks playoff experience. Philly is screwed withojt wentz.
Put a halfway decent team around Rogers and they run right through the NFC this year. Instead, anotber failure, this time they did t even get to be embarrassed on the playoff stage.
Minnesota and Philadelphia are on their back up quarterbacks, the Rams is in his second season, Newton cant throw to save his life and the MVP has looked pretty average all season plus Brees looks about done and relies on his rb. Yet one of them will be in the super bowl and Rodgers gets to watch and wonder what if…
What if they had a decent backup. What if they had a few starting caliber NFL players and some sort of depth. What if they had better management. Or even, what if he was on another team.
Fangio was Capers defensive coordinator in Carolina. They have a similar mindset.
As for their being many candidates, I think there are only a handful better than Capers. Capers tried to come up with new defenses but his plans always fell apart due to injuries.
I wonder if the 3-4 defense is more prone to injuries than the 4-3, which always seems to be the Packers problem. You’re asking big guys in the middle to take on two offensive lineman and you’re asking the outside linebackers to cover at times or take on guys who outweigh them by 50 pounds.
Yep. Fangio was Capers’ defensive coordinator from 1995-98 in Carolina and from 2002-05 in Houston. That made me re-think the whole Fangio as DC in Green Bay as a good move. So naturally they will promote from within, because #logic.
I believe Murphy should be replaced if he doesn’t get rid of TT. If Murphy is not sitting at Gus Bradley’s door offering him the best contract possible he should also be fired. In a passing league check out the difference in key defensive numbers for the chargers after Bradley became DC. Then look at the Packers.
In 2016 before Bradley 2017 after Bradley 2016 PACK 2017 PACK
Passer rating against. 83.8 77.3 95.9 102
3rd down conversion. 40% 39% 41% 43%
Yard pass attempt. 7.3 6.4 8.1 7.9
Red zone scoring. 51.61% 47.73% 64.47% 60.98%
Big Plays. 53- 20+YD 8- 40+YD 34- 20+ YD 3- 40+YD 58- 20+ 11- 40+ 55- 20+ 8-40+
Points allowed per game 26.4 17.5 24.2 24
All the Packer numbers are at the bottom of the league or very close. If this is not reason to get rid of a defensive coordinator nothing is. Get Bradley If humanly possible even if you have to make a promise that he would get first shot at head coach if an opening came up. By the way the Chargers were a 3-4 defense in 2016 and Bradley changed to a 4-3 in 2017. Show some initiative Murphy and make Bradley an offer he can’t refuse.
Sorry those categories did not come out as typed. A little hard to read the way they condensed, but if you take the time to look at the improvement in the Chargers after Bradley and how either charger year compares with the last two packer years it is clear a change is required.
Idk, I like the thought of Fangio as DC. Although I the the most realistic scenario is he returns to the bay area and coaches for the raiders
I hear Davis Jr. (is he one of the strangest looking cats around) is talking to Jon Gruden.
fuck this shit the world will end in 2018