Having McCarthy working with Capers will be significant.
"Dom has more stats than everybody in this room combined," said third-year defensive back Hyde, taking a quick survey of Tuesday's locker room. "I don't even know where he comes up with it most of the time, but he'll talk about something, something was 67 percent and we'll look around the room like, 'How the hell does he know that?' But he has his ways of finding that stuff out."
Capers is an open book to his players. If they want to know anything about his zone-blitz defense, they ask and get an answer sooner than later. On this day, however, Capers isn't giving away any secrets to reporters. When asked how much he deployed his base defense in 2014, Capers is coy.
What he will say is that the amount of traditional two-back, two-receiver packages his defense saw last season was the fewest he can remember.
More in the article supporting some of the discussions on x4 since the draft about the hybrid-ish players on D. The guys up front are pretty straight forward in what they do, but the back 7 or 8 guys have to be able to do more. Save maybe the 2 CBs on the outside.
The evolution of Capers' system doesn't have players lining up at the same spot on every down. The Packers dialed up a number of new formations last season to keep offenses off-balance, including their NASCAR dime package in obvious passing situations. Their Big Okie package was effective against the run with Richardson subbing as an extra in-the-box safety.
Since converting Mike Neal to outside linebacker in 2013, the defense has favored players who can play more than one position. They took the same approach last year in maximizing the versatility of Matthews, Peppers, Nick Perry and Hyde.