Capers spoke to the media about his gratitude for being able to coach again with the Panthers alongside a new team and staff.
Good morning It's like deja vu here Thank you Sorry if you want to open it up uh hello Sports live in Queen City Cal surreal is it to kind of be back Here and what this process was like Well a guy told me a long time ago if You stay in a business long enough you Go full circle and uh as I was driving Over here uh when I arrived and looked Up at the skyline And I couldn't think about how much it Had changed okay since back In 1995 when we started and uh but it's Great to be back uh I have nothing but Great memories of my time here and look Forward to Working with uh Coach Wright and Coach ever Rowe and Doing whatever I can to help us be Successful Tom Scott Fowler glad to see you hey Scott good to see you Um Tell me what you envision as your role Care Well I've always believed this that To be successful in any role you've got To please the people you're working for And uh And when you go into a new role okay you Kind of evaluate that role and ask Yourself how can I be the most help
To number one a Gerald how can be the Most help to Frank and so That's my goal okay is to try to do as Much as I can to help Pajero be Successful as a defensive coordinator And Frank is a head coach That I've always felt that way as a Staff I know the best staff members that I've had okay are the ones that did a Tremendous job within their role And we're a good part of a team I'm Steve Reed Associated Press welcome Back Steve Um At this point in your career what is it That still drives you I mean a lot of People would probably be retired and you Know on the beach and I mean why is it You're still want to do this well I've Had a lot of people ask me you know why Are you still doing this I do it because I enjoy it I know that probably Scott and you will Remember Back in 96 I can remember we had a lot Of national media in here and some guy Asked me what do you want to be doing When you're 72 years old and I looked at Him and I said I want to be coaching And God willing here I am still coaching So uh I enjoy the competitiveness the X no Part of the game Still I don't think there's anything
That matches Sunday afternoon for three Hours You know you put in all that work during The week and and there's no in between You either feel real good or you don't Feel very good at all and I don't know What you find to match that okay when It's all over Don't I hurt with Carolina Blitz uh Gerald was just in here and he was asked If he keeps you hit and he laughed and Said you stay plenty hip so I want to Know how do you stay here well being Around these young guys and watching Them compete keeps you young I'll say That you know but uh No I I think the game the you know the Demands of the game all right So a lot of things have changed this Will be 37 years for me in the league But some things and the most important Things I don't think ever change From NBC here in Charlotte welcome back Thank you wondering if there's anything When you Coach Frank here uh or now have Thought back to and reflected on that Made you think even in that moment that He would go on to become an NFL Well he was He thought out everything he was a Really good decision maker I thought he Had great leadership ability it was one Of the reasons he was brought in here Okay to be the first quarterback
I think guys gravitated towards him and It's been fun for me to watch Frank grow Through being an assistant coach a Coordinator and now a head coach We had our first staff meeting this Morning and You know very well organized very Detailed creates a vision of what he Wants things to look like and I just Think he has tremendous leadership Capabilities Welcome back uh what about the veteran Um of this this defense of the staff Entirely impresses you the most because It's kind of like when you were building That first team you won a lot of Veterans on the team as far as players To have success right away how can that Be done with the staff Well I think there's a lot of Similarities okay when you put together Your staff and you put together your Team and You guys remember when we first put Together our team here you know I think One of the reasons we were able to have Success early is because we had a great Locker room we had a number of High Character guys and guys were unselfish Okay that it wasn't I mean my it was we Sr and and we know there's going to be Ups and downs through the course of the Year everything's not going to go the Way always the way you want it to go and
How you handle the adversity is Extremely important and then more Important I think if you are successful How you handle success because I think That's much harder to handle than Adversity but the staff I think sets the Tone And uh you know I think Frank Frank has Done an outstanding job of putting Together A staff of not you know uh there's Experience but there's going to be a lot Of energy I think and a lot of good Teachers I haven't been a head coach and A coordinator several times in the past Being a senior assistant what is that Like a 30 000 foot view over the whole Thing or kind of how does that work on a Day-to-day basis Well again you know I think back when When I started doing this because you Know for my career you know I had six Years of position coach and then 25 Years is either a coordinator or head Coach and then these last this will be The sixth year of doing this so What I've tried to do is say how can I Help the staff and help the organization And You know many times it's just things That you've experienced over those 35 36 Years and uh so And that and the role kind of evolves I Think depending on who you're with you
Know I mean I've One of the reasons I'm here is because Of agero you know I mean agero was Was our quality control guy at Green Bay In 2016 I was extremely impressed with Him I mean very intelligent uh very good Work ethic uh You know and and uh we only had him for One year and then then Sean McVeigh Hired him with the Rams but uh when he When he got the Denver defensive Coordinator's job and called I said There's no question in my mind okay Because I just First of all I like the person uh you Know and uh he's got great leadership Capabilities He's uh he's like this you know he's not An up and down guy the players will know What their they're getting every day When they come into the meetings and the Locker room and and I think the players Respond to that they respect that he'll Have credibility because he really knows What he's doing And in my mind he has that it Factor Joe person with the athletic good to see You good to see you I wondered if you've Had conversations with the Gerald about Kind of like helping him get to the next Step and I know it's not rushing to get There but to become a head coach in this League well I think he's got the right Perspective in terms of
He knows that his job is to be the best Defensive coordinator in the league and I think he's got those capabilities all Right and so he focuses on what's the Task at hand what's right in front of Him Uh But uh There's no doubt in my mind it's Somewhere down the road okay that will Happen for him you know I've just got so Much respect for him and and uh you know He's such a he's such a humble guy You know I mean he's going to give Everybody else credit You know I've I've said before I think The players here will love playing for Him I saw it happen in Denver in one Year you know the the uh the players Love playing for him there and that's a Big part of it curious to besides the Skyline as you've driven around the last Several days what else has changed are There any restaurants you like went to Find and they were condos or anything Like that well Uh the guys that covered the team here Remember I spent a lot of time here the First two years okay there was an office Downstairs that I didn't leave very much So there were a couple restaurants one Of them's not here any longer okay but I Used to have my dinner there about every Night I had a booth back in a corner and
A paper and so when I would leave here Right down right down the street here it Was a little Italian restaurant Yesterday coach what Frank Reich was Saying that he would despise having a Bunch of Yes Men on his staff and that The thought he wants people with Different thought processes how Important is it for you guys to all Think differently be on the same page Though and also be able to tell Frank When they disagree Well I think what you're saying that's Part of being a good leader you know you You don't want people okay that won't Express their opinion uh to me that's The way you grow and uh and that's part Of having a good staff and a good team And so you know I I just believe that's The way Frank's going to be you know He's going to want everybody to express Their opinion and you know as part of a Collective effort and he's the leader of Everything Doug Mike The Charlotte River you've also worked With Peter Hansen and Bert watts in Denver I was just curious what did they Bring to the table into this Well I think starting with Peter you Know he was with Gerald with the 49ers And so he's been around the system uh For quite a while He then went on to become a defensive
Coordinator okay at the college level And uh I think he's a good teacher uh Again I thought that his players uh Really performed well uh a year you know This past year Uh Bert watts is a guy that I spent a Lot of time with in the meeting room and Brings a lot of energy and uh you know Every day he's I've always felt that Within his staff you have to have Certain energy guys and and you know not Everybody's the same but uh but I think I think Pete is a very good teacher I Think Bert's a good teacher he's been a Coordinator in college they're both guys That relate well to the players I think You look at this you've been around Three four forever as you look at this Team what do you see is is maybe pieces That you need to add obviously you know There's differences with the three four Bigger nose tackle Speed rushers on the outside what do you See is this team needing to to change to Fit that Well we're just starting the process Right now you know of evaluation because I think the first thing you do is we've Got to do a good job of valuing the Players who run on our team you know Right now and uh But I having gone through this many Times You know what you want it to look like
But the initial phase is you've got I Think it starts with who are your best Players how can we get the best players On the field and utilize their abilities And you adapt the scheme more to the Players okay than adapting the players To the scheme I think because they you I Think you make a big mistake if you try To plug a square peg into a round hole So it's a process you go through and We're just initially starting that Process and it starts with doing a Thorough evaluation of the guys we have Right now Agero made to what you did initially With the three four what kind of tweaks Has he made to what you do that if maybe Taking it up a level where everything Evolves and You know this is such a copycat League That the minute that you have success in One area everybody studies it and then It's less successful okay so you have to Constantly what's going to give us an Edge here and there and sometimes that Depends on the players you have okay Adapting to you know what you think uh Will give your top Playmakers a chance To make plays and uh so that to me That's the fun part and the challenge Okay coming into a brand new situation You know because it's like putting a Puzzle together and and uh So you know what you want it to look
Like but you know it'll be a work in Progress I'm curious when you've watched film on The Panthers and he played them what Jumped out to you on there Well I thought they were a physical team When we played them here I mean they Their front did a very good job of Blocking us they ran the ball well which Set up their play-action passing game And so I Yeah I always evaluate a team can they Keep you on your heels a little bit Keeping the Downing distance to their Advantage because coaching defense I've Always felt like if we can dictate For example went on first down and we Get you in second and long there's an Awful lot of things we can do to create Problems for you and uh In this day and age You know with these quarterbacks that Are in the league you've got to be Disruptive to them to have success I Think but uh but I thought the Panthers Did a great job of of dictating the down Distance because of their ability to run The ball and play action pass on the Early Downs Part of your role be self-scouting for The offense as well You know just kind of how defenses will See the offense energems also involved In all three phases but will you help
Self-scout too as well Well you know I'll have my hands full Probably Scouting the opponent for the defense And the Tendencies and those types of Things you know so that'll be you know Where a lot of my focus will be in in Terms of uh looking at the upcoming Opponent uh presenting their Tendencies And those types of things You heard from since it was announced You were coming back Well Yeah I've I've Gotten a number of calls okay some of Them had haven't had a chance to respond Yet to but just people that you've Worked with okay and obviously anytime You're going into a new situation this Day and age there's plenty of people Calling you wanting wanting to get a Position you know on the staff all right So and uh that becomes tougher and Tougher when you've worked it on as many Staffs as I have there's a lot of people Okay you know and have worked with but But that's one of the things that I look Forward to on this staff because guys Like James campen I was with for nine Years in Green Bay you know do Staley I Was with in Detroit Todd wash I've been With in Jacksonville and Detroit uh the Guys coming from Denver and Gerald okay
That we've worked together so I've Worked with most most of the guys on the Staff Folks from this organization who maybe You were with previously well you know Donnie toner our equipment man okay was The assistant equipment man we came here I mean he Uh As a matter of fact he He told me he said he remembered when They they he picked us up for the first Press conference and carried our bags Okay to the to the hotel for the first Press conference was it a Marriott or Down here back in 1995. David Tepper during the interview Process and how involved was he and even Bringing you here I really haven't had Much contact with Mr Tepper but I Certainly look forward to meeting him And and I've heard nothing but really Great things about him I recall you used To you look in great shape now but back In the day I think you started the Treadmill at six nine and worked your Way up what are you at now well I still That's part of my day okay is is getting On the treadmill so it's like getting Them brushing your teeth We've heard a lot of fun ways to Describe Deuce daily how would you Describe Deuces about a sentence Deuce brings as much energy to staff as
Any staff I've been around I mean he's He's a guy that you feel his presence When he's in a room Else guys Thank you good good to see you all