After one season with the Lions, Dom Capers is leaving to take the same title with the Denver Broncos.
Dom Capers spent this past season as a senior defensive assistant for the Lions. Now, according to Ian Rapoport of NFL Network, the veteran coach is expected to become a senior defensive assistant with the Denver Broncos.
As Rapoport reported, Elijo Evero is expected to join new Broncos’ head coach Nathaniel Hackett in Denver and become the defensive coordinator. Evero is coming from the Los Angeles Rams coaching staff, where has been a secondary coach since 2017. But he was a defensive quality control coach for the Green Bay Packers in 2016. Capers was the Packers’ defensive coordinator under Mike McCarthy from 2009-2017, with a Super Bowl win over that stretch.
Evero has never been a coordinator before, so Capers will bring his vast experience to what could be an important complementary role on Denver’s coaching staff. As Dave Birkett of The Detroit Free Press pointed to, Capers is coming in to help another first-time coordinator he knows. Lions defensive coordinator Aaron Glenn played for Capers on the Houston Texans from 2002-2004.
The backstory on Dom Capers leaving the Lions: New Broncos DC Ejiro Evero was a quality control coach under Capers in Green Bay. Capers is going to help EJ get his start as coordinator, much like he did Aaron Glenn this year. In talking to Dom, he's confident AG will be a HC soon
— Dave Birkett (@davebirkett) February 11, 2022
Dom Capers has been around a long time
Along with his stints as defensive coordinator in Green Bay, Pittsburgh (1992-1994), Jacksonville (1999-2000) and Miami (2006-2007), Capers was the first head coach for not one but two expansion teams, the Carolina Panthers in 1995 and the Texans in 2002. He won AP Coach of the Year in 1996, when the Panthers went 12-4 and reached the NFC Championship Game.
In recent years the now 71-year old Capers has been making the rounds as a senior defensive assistant. First the Jaguars in 2019, then the Minnesota Vikings in 2020 and the Lions in 2021 before taking the same title in Denver now.
As Capers leaves the Lions, now the focus regarding Detroit’s coaching staff moves totally to defensive backs coach Aubrey Pleasant, who has interviewed for the still-open defensive coordinator post with the New Orleans Saints.