Why didn't Mike McCarthy fire Dom Capers? The answer: Mason Crosby

What do a once-struggling kicker and a defensive coordinator who has been a punching bag for the Green Bay Packers' fan base have in common?

Coach Mike McCarthy has stuck with both of them.

In the case of Mason Crosby, his slump of 2012 didn’t cost him his job, and he’s turned into one of the most reliable kickers ever since.

McCarthy appears to have applied that same line of thinking with Dom Capers, the 66-year-old who is returning for his ninth season in charge of the Packers defense despite coaching a unit that ranked 31st in the NFL in passing yards allowed last season and had another playoff meltdown.

“Well, going back to the Mason Crosby comment, and obviously applying that to the question about Dom, I think it’s important to recognize, as far answering your question about it being easy to make that change, it would give everybody a breath of fresh air,” McCarthy said during an interview that aired Thursday on ESPN Milwaukee.

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Gotta give the man some players and then those players have got to stay healthy.

Originally Posted by: DarkaneRules 

Honestly Crosby and Capers have a couple of items in common, starting with some of their struggles being way over blown and not their fault.


Did Crosby have a slump year? Yes, but it was waaaay over blown, Crosby was normal inside of 40 yards and had a minor slump between 41 and 50 yards... Crosby big problem was that someone else kept asking him to line up for 50+ yarders... I believe Crosby was asked to kick 9 different 50+ yard FGs, in a year that the average kicker was asked to kick less than 2.

So how was Crosby's problem solved? The coach finally figured out he was the problem and they started attempting punt the ball into the other teams 20 yard line, instead of attempting the 50+ FGs. Did Crosby slump? Yes a little bit... but the bigger problem was the Coach.

Originally Posted by: beast 

The one that concerns me the most is the lack of quality depth at OLB... and then there is also the CB questions.

Originally Posted by: beast 

I agree for sure. I'm happy with how the draft fell and I think over time King/Biegel will contribute more than if they had gone with a TJ Watt. Here's to hoping so anyways. With the addition of King, Jones, and, House, this gives Capers many options to allow plugging these guys in where they can be most successful.

The bothersome part is that it would have been great to have addressed the OLB and pass rush issue first IMO. I say this because pass rushers can have a huge affect on pass coverage where pass cover guys don't affect the pass rushers. I knew, for example, half way thru the 1st quarter of the Atlanta game GB was in big trouble. No pressure on Ryan, great wr's, and they handed our asses to us. When it gets to playoff time most all the teams have good QB's, OL's, and Wr's. The only equalizer is getting to the QB NOT covering receivers longer.
What concerns me most about our pass rushers is Clay and Perry are the front line guys and they both have durability issues. You have to hope for a big jump from Elliot, Frackrell, some juice from Biegel, and some push from the interior guys. What absolutely cannot happen is for injuries to rip into the pass rushing group like it did to the WR group two years ago and to the CB's last year.

Originally Posted by: warhawk 

Honestly Crosby and Capers have a couple of items in common, starting with some of their struggles being way over blown and not their fault.


Did Crosby have a slump year? Yes, but it was waaaay over blown, Crosby was normal inside of 40 yards and had a minor slump between 41 and 50 yards... Crosby big problem was that someone else kept asking him to line up for 50+ yarders... I believe Crosby was asked to kick 9 different 50+ yard FGs, in a year that the average kicker was asked to kick less than 2.

So how was Crosby's problem solved? The coach finally figured out he was the problem and they started attempting punt the ball into the other teams 20 yard line, instead of attempting the 50+ FGs. Did Crosby slump? Yes a little bit... but the bigger problem was the Coach.


Similar problems have happened with Capers, have his defense struggled? Yes... but honestly how often has Capers been given a complete defense?

The Packers defense has had some enormousness talent gap holes in them, which is not the fault at Capers at all... after the Super Bowl, they lost some guys and had almost no pass rush... then lost Collins and had nothing other than Burnett on the back end (and with all due respect, Burnett struggled a lot at FS), then losing the CBs. There has always been a HUGE hole in the Packers talent level at important roles/positions. That's not Capers fault at all, if anyone is to blame for that it's Ted Thompson. And this year we're going into training camp with big questions at important positions again on defense. The one that concerns me the most is the lack of quality depth at OLB... and then there is also the CB questions.



But it's like Rex and Rob Ryan... they are twins, and both run the same defense and have the same over aggressive style. I would even argue that Rob Ryan has played smarter with his team... when they both faced that Packers in the same season on different teams... Rex kept blitzing Rodgers over and over and over... and Rodgers kept burning him on it. Rob was smarter, when Rodgers burned him on blitzes, he adjusted and sent everyone back into coverage.

So why is Rex's resume look so much better than Rob's? Because of the GMs and talent difference... before becoming a head coach, Rex coached under some good GMs that got him more defensive talent (though they sometime struggled on offense talent), while Rob has coached under some really, really bad GMs and his defenses had very little talent to work with.

Originally Posted by: beast