He’ll walk out early for practice, take his spot, offer counsel to defensive coordinator Ejiro Evero, or help out with rookie outside linebackers coach AC Carter. Carter was a quality control coach in Denver in 2022, when Capers was there with Evero, and is now in his first year as a position coach with the Panthers.
And when he talks about Capers, when any coach or player does, the tone goes beyond respect. It’s more of a reverence for one of the legends of the 3-4 zone blitz scheme.
Carter was born in New Orleans in 1993, so he missed Capers’ work with the Saints (where he served as defensive coordinator from 1986 to 1991), but grew up hearing the stories about Sam Mills and Rickey Jackson and the Dome Patrol, which had Capers’ fingerprints all over it.
“I think having coach Dom is a blessing,” Carter said. Obviously, he gets the credit for being a generator, a starter of this style of defense, this style of play, coming up with a lot of the scheme things back in the day. And having him in your corner to always give a stamp of approval, or something that you probably need to do better in some instances, that you need to work on. Whether it’s for any meetings, any drill work, anything because he has all the experience in the world of doing it. I’m so lucky to have him here.”
But even with all that experience, Capers isn’t one to stand around and talk about the good old days. He might have coached Kevin Greene and Lamar Lathon, but now he’s got rookie Nic Scourton and Princely Umanmielen to instruct, and Scourton was eight years from being born when Capers coached the Panthers to the 1996 NFC Championship Game.