Patriots Hire Dom Capers as Secondary Coach

This seems like sort of a big deal: the Patriots have hired Dom Capers as a special assistant/secondary coach. Weird. Last month, word on the street had Capers going to Dallas, presumably in an effort to line up Jason Garrett's coaching staff for when he inevitably takes over in 2009*.

And now, Capers joins the New England coaching staff. Double weird. New England head coach Bill Belichick issues press releases:

"I have known Dom for a long time and respect him tremendously as a coach, particularly defensively. To add a coach of his caliber is an outstanding opportunity for us. I look forward to getting to work with Dom and Dean [Pees] immediately."

Capers was the Dolphins defensive coordinator last season but was part of the housecleaning effort once Bill Parcells took over. He has experience in the 3-4 defense (a scheme the Patriots feature frequently) serving as the Steelers defensive coordinator from 1992-1994, and the head coach in Carolina and Houston before landing with the Dolphins in 2006.

Who knows why Capers chose New England over Dallas, but with Asante Samuel headed for free agency, there's no unit on the team in need of more attention than the secondary.

* Baseless speculation