I met Capers once (he sat behind me at a UT football game) and just talking him was like talking to a professor of defense. Now in reality if I talked to any defensive coordinator they would probably impress me, but Capers has done a lot with little. I say this not as a slam to TT, but in the real world where player that get selected in draft...many just don't perform to your expectations. Hence, TT goes back to the drawing board for more bodies.

This year will prove to be the key that unleashes a dominating defense. Why, you might ask? Thanks for asking, I'll tell you why, talent. Previous years LOFT caught up to the Packers "D" in the form of injuries and with their depth being so thin...they weren't able to compensate. This year I see depth all over the board on defense including OLB, and ILB. These are young players that are providing that depth which means even the Packers, which have injuries that seem to gut the team every year, can field impact players over the course of a year. I know many hate Capers, and will say we need greater depth at OLB and ILB and that the league has caught up to Capers. I don't think so and of course that's MHO. I think this year is the pivot point where we will say the Packer's D turned it around and became a wrecking ball in the league.

"but the main reason the Packers gave up chunk yardage was because they couldn’t develop a consistent pass rush and get Matt Ryan off his spot."

Yet the Packers really didn't do much to address the issue. Instead Packers fans are "Hoping" again. We're all hoping Elliott and Frackrell can be better than Peppers and Jones were last season or at the very least not have any drop off. We're hoping Matthews poor play is nothing but injury related and he's able to resemble the 2014 Matthews opposed to the Matthews we've watched the last 2 seasons. Last but not least we're hoping Biegel is able to come in and contribute more than a 4th round draft pick is expected to. Not being able to participate isn't helping him either. Hopefully he doesn't miss much of TC because he'll need all the time he can get. These first 5 weeks of the season could go a long ways in where the Packers in deciding where the Packers play in January.

MM is loyal (sometimes to a fault see: Slocum) to his coaches and players. I agree that Capers isn't going anywhere. TT's drafting has been less than stellar on defense with the caveat that I believe this year he got it right. I will continue to be optimistic about the defense this year and 'hope' that I'm right. I like what I see so far; the absolute gutting of the CB group last year due to injuries was devastating. If this years unit can remain relatively healthy I have high expectations for a big turn around for the defense and the offense (with the two tight ends) has me giddy with anticipation for just how good this team could be. Let the games begin!

Preach NP!

We are all "hoping" the OLB situation is better this year. The CB situation will progress simply because of the unlikely amount of injuries to one position group not being repeated. Also, because of the draft and House being brought in.

The defense was a hot mess last year. You can't fix hot mess in one year. So TT chose to fix coverage and hope pass rush stays the same or marginally improves. I personally think they should have held on to Peppers and gotten another FA such as Barwin in addition to Biegel. As it is, we're left hoping for the "jump" that almost never occurs with our defensive players. Daniels, Bishop (although that took years), Collins, Tramon, Harris (all took years).

Who can we hope will make that jump this year? Who's primed to make an impact? Clark? Sure. Perry if he stays healthy (a BIG if). Josh Jones? Mayyybe. King? Doubtful in year 1.

So we're left hoping Daniels can continue to Beast. That CM3 gets back on whatever he was on before he got his big deal in 2013. That Perry stays healthy and HHCD turns into the all pro he's shown flashes of. Oh, and the young OLBs are contributors and not liabilities (like they've been for years).

Lots of hope. Not much reasoning. :(

Dudes, wouldn't be so sure about that, lets say they have a monster year and the defense collapses again? Somebodies head will roll, be it Capers or Thompson

Why do we continue to stick with Capers when it is known across the league how complicated his defensive scheme is and how it takes years to know it and yet the Packers' philosophy is to stay extremely young (and thereby inexperienced)? These seem to not mesh. I understand that at times Capers D looks great, but that has usually been against inferior teams. If we are concerned about injuries and how the backups would fill in, then I again submit my question of why we should stick with a 'complicated' defensive scheme?

Pre-season hasn't even started and you're already trying to get my blood pressure up?

We had the players to win a SB. We were only a few plays away. Coaching failed us. The Board of Directors have failed us. I think they listened to Vic Ketchman too much - "players not schemes".

What are the odds that CM3 makes it through the year healthy? Will TM be a good RB? Will the new free agents work out? Will any 2nd year guys step up? Except for AR and WR's, it's almost a new team.

BUT - at least we have the same coaches!

See y'all when season starts.

It's obvious that Capers isn't going anywhere. That said I'm not ready to give him credit for mostly faling to deal with the lack of development of 2 high picks at CB. Randall and Rollins play in his defense. If they suck he's at least partially accountable for their lack of development. The true story to me is that Capers mostly failed to deal with the fact that his staff failed to develop Rollins and Randell to play in his system. In most places that gets you fired. He's lucky to be in Green Bay.

(quote from Cory) "Capers needs to operate the defense with all of the exotic formations and blitzes that he usually does."

One thing that I have believed for a long time is that the better the players on the field (in this case, the defense), the more vanilla that unit can afford to be. When this is the case your players simply out-execute the offense - it doesn't matter if they have an idea what is coming, they still have to beat it.

Packers did that on offense with the Power Sweep in Lombardi's time. Defenses knew what was coming but it was hard to stop.

The opposite is also true, the weaker your unit (or perhaps the more injured it is), the more creative you have to be to win your share of battles. Capers is not my favourite coordinator, but he did have to play with a poor hand last year.

Exotic packages suggest difficulty in winning the contested situations, so I'm rooting for (comparative) blandness of scheme, because it means our guys are out-executing theirs.

This isn't the be-all-and-end-all of scheme, there is still plenty of value in keeping the offense guessing, but well executed 'blandness' of scheme can (counter-intuitively) be pretty great to watch.

I don't think that Capers is on the hot seat yet. Although I do believe that this is an important year for him and the defense to show some improvement/consistency over last year. The biggest area of improvement needs to come on third downs. This defense must do a better job of getting off the field, especially in 3rd and long situations. We need to close down the middle of the field which is usually a practice area for opposing QBs and their receivers. Plus we need a better pass rush and better pass coverage. My concern is that our defense really only has 2 complete players, Daniels and Clinton Dix. All the others are question marks or have a weakness which can be exploited. On the DL Clark, Lowry, Francois, Ringo, and M. Adams are all unknown quantities but hopefully Francois will help against the run game. OLBs; Perry when he is not injured is inconsistent. He has one game where his presence is felt and then disappears the next game. CM3, can he stay healthy for the season and where is he playing? Elliott and Fackrell may or may not take a step up. ILBs, Ryan and Martinez are serviceable against the run but not much help in pass coverage, Joe Thomas too inconsistent to depend on. After that, who knows? Our CBs have been discussed endlessly and our best hope is that King can emerge quickly and combine with House to form a decent boundary tandem. Safety looks good with Dix, Burnett, Jones and Brice, but there is only so much they can do. Can Capers mold this group into a solid defense? It's too early to tell, but we'll have a good measuring stick when they go to Atlanta in Week 2 of the season. If they get run out of the building again we'll know that we're in for a long season of holding our breath whenever the defense is on the field and if so, maybe the last season for Capers. Thanks, Since '61

Yup, that's right. Capers had to deal with injuries last year...which is unheard of in the NFL.

Of the 11 starters to open the season on defense only 10 were available in the, what has become a firm Packers tradition, abomination of a defensive performance in Atlanta.

Come on! Try and name a defensive coordinator that can have any success with only 10 of his preferred defensive starters on the field! Can't be done!

With the Packers offense they don't need the number 1 defense to win it all , a defense in the top 10 would be enough to get the job done. I too used to blame Capers for the defensive struggles but I have come to realize he can only play the cards he was dealt.

How many years does Ted get? (and I'm not recommending FA). He has too many misses on selecting defensive players. It's clear - with no pressure on the QB, there is not a secondary that can cover. How many DB/S has he drafted vs the number of edge rusher? How many years have we been knocked out of the playoffs when the D can't get to the QB or simply run over late in games? How bad would the Packers be if AaRod had not fallen into Ted's lap.
Really, would the Packers be a playoff team with Rogers? Time for Ted to Go!

The thing is, our defense doesn't HAVE to be great. We don't need a top 5 defense or even a top 10. There isn't a defense in the league that we can't hang 24 points on if Rodgers and company are even halfway clicking. So if our defense is merely good enough to hold the other team to 21 or less, we're golden.

Fans always want to fire the coach and don't focus too much on the talent on the field. You can draw up all the defensive schemes you want but if the players cannot execute because of a lack of talent it will not do any good. Dom Capers is one of the most innovative defensive minds in the NFL. It's about players not plays.

Why does everyone talk of a base 3-4 defense, when 80% of the snaps are nickel and dime? It comes down to Belichick's mantra about everyone doing their jobs. As the season starts the Pack has some exciting promise at key positions. Brice's role, repaired secondary. It'll work fine absent key injuries and the sparsity of blue chippers.