Former Packers defensive coordinator Dom Capers joins Vikings

JR Radcliffe
Packers News
Green Bay Packers defensive coordinator Dom Capers is shown before their game against the Detroit Lions on Dec. 31, 2017, at Ford Field in Detroit.

An NFC North rival has made the move to #HireCapers.

Dom Capers, the defensive coordinator who became a fixation for disgruntled Green Bay Packers fans during the final years of the Mike McCarthy era, has been brought on board by the Minnesota Vikings as a senior defensive assistant.

Capers served in the same role with the Jacksonville Jaguars last year. In his 32 years in the NFL, he has been a head coach or defensive coordinator for 25 of those seasons, including the Packers from 2009-17.

Capers was dismissed after the Packers missed the playoffs in the 2017 season, replaced by Mike Pettine in 2018. The Packers fired Capers along with defensive line coach Mike Trgovac and inside linebackers coach Scott McCurley. McCarthy would make it only until early December of the 2018 season before he, too, was fired.

The Packers struggled with pass rush, secondary play and full-unit cohesion in Capers' final years, but the Packers had also delivered strong defensive seasons as recently as 2015, and Capers was the defensive coordinator when the 2010 Packers won Super Bowl XLV.

Frustrated Packers fans frequently used the #FireCapers hashtag on social media, although the team had a middle-of-the-pack defense in 2012, 2014 and 2015 and a top-five defense in 2009 and 2010. The 2011 team, however, which finished 15-1 thanks to a high-octane offense, finished last in overall defense and was famously bounced by the New York Giants in the playoff opener.

Notes

» Packers fullback Danny Vitale, who missed the final game of the 2019 regular season and both playoff games because of a right knee injury, underwent an arthroscopic procedure on the knee.

» The Packers named Connor Lewis to serve as offensive quality control coach. Lewis joined the Packers in 2016 and has served as a data analyst and in the technology department.

Olivia Reiner of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel contributed.

JR Radcliffe can be reached at (262) 361-9141 or jradcliffe@gannett.com. Follow him on Twitter at @JRRadcliffe.