"I thought we were heading in the right direction," he said of those early years in Houston. "We beat the Pittsburgh Steelers the first year, that was an 11-win team, and we went from four to five to seven wins. And then the fourth year was kind of one of those disastrous years, you know, where we had a ton of injuries and things just didn't work out."
Capers also coached the Panthers for four years, and saw things unravel at the end, so that part was familiar too.
"You're going to be working, competing against people, and you're not going to be as talented as they are when you first start out," Capers said of coaching expansion teams. "So to me the challenge, and sometimes you do your best coaching jobs when things are the toughest, OK, is keeping everybody tied together and fighting.
"Even our last year at Carolina (4-12 in 1998), we won our last two games, and to me, that gave me a sense of pride as the guys hung together and kept fighting through a difficult season. So, yeah, it's a challenge, but, hey, most of the guys in this business, you're in it because you enjoy a challenge. But I think about being the only guy in the history of the league to start two expansion franchises, it is something."