A very good friend of mine is a huge Bears fan and a huge Canes fan (his Dad is a Miami alum) and he hates talking about Shields because (from what I understand) it basically came down to Chicago or GB for Shields. Shields chose us because he thought he had the best chance to play early for us which makes sense when you think back to our CB depth chart entering last season. All he really needed to do was beat out Bush and a guy in Lee that was always hurt. Smart move, Sammy.
I agree with how crazy the NFL is when it comes to the draft in general and UDFA's. I think that really shows how important coaching can be. Great coordinators are important when it comes to scheming to take advantage of any advantages an offensive or defensive unit might have over an opponent. Scheming to basically give yourself good odds on every snap (to use a type of poker analogy) is extremely important and is also one of the most misunderstood aspects when it comes to fans, IMO (you've posted about how questioning playcalls constantly is a little ridiculous given the limited info we have as fans). I see MM as basically our offensive coordinator, so we have two excellent architects in MM and Capers when it comes to scheming for games. That being said, I think the coaches underneath those guys are hugely important. I don't see any way we have the success we've had with late rounders and UDFA's if we didn't have top flight positional coaches.
You can basically go across the board on defense with Trgovac on the DL, Greene and Moss at LB, and Whitt and Perry in the secondary. We have possibly the most impressive defensive coaching staff in the NFL when you put Capers at the top of that. MM deserves major props for finding and hiring all those guys.
On the offense side, I'm not enamored with Campen. In his defense, I will say we haven't done him any favors. When he started we were a ZBS team with smallish OL, and we've gradually transitioned to a more traditional scheme in recent seasons. TT also hasn't done a very good job of giving him young players to work with until recent seasons either, IMO. Other than that, I have a large amount of respect for our offensive coaches. I think Bennett did a brilliant job last year. I know Starks gave him a huge amount of credit in getting him ready to play. Philbin is our OC, which may not seem like an important position with MM calling the plays, but if you watch interviews with Philbin on a weekly basis you realize he has a very sharp offensive mind. He's a very intelligent person. Clements is great as a QB coach. AR gives him a huge amount of credit for his success. I think highly of Fontenot. McAdoo does a great job with out TEs.
The head coaches, DCs, and OCs get the big money, but exceptional positional coaches are invaluable in the NFL, IMO. That makes it extremely unique compared to the NBA and MLB. I think it is obvious that assistants have the least amount of impact in the NBA. In MLB, minor league coaches can certainly help to shape players, but I think it is too a much lesser degree than the NFL. When looking at our current assistant coaches, I see a ton of guys that are going to do big things in this league as their careers progress. That is particularly true on the defensive side of the ball.
I remember a great interview last year with Woodson where he was very frank about his doubts when Joe Whitt became our CB coach in 2009. Whitt is younger than Wood and didn't ever play CB. He walked on at Auburn as a WR but his collegiate career was ended by an injury. He went from a quality control position in 2008 to CBs coach in an offseason when almost all of our defensive coaches were fired. I can't find the video now, but you could see that Woodson had a huge amount of respect for Whitt, and you could tell it was all earned because Wood was not at all convinced Whitt could handle the job in the beginning. He actually even flat out said he had a huge amount of respect for Whitt and you could tell he meant it after talking about how much he doubted him early in his coaching career. If a guy can have that type of impression on Woodson, it isn't hard to imagine the type of respect he could command from younger CBs.
I wish I could find the video, because it was a great interview with Woodson. He sounded like an old coach talking about a great young coach that really impressed him despite some initial doubts which is pretty funny since he's technically playing under Whitt. Watching interviews with Woodson now is really interesting because he had a terrible reputation somehow in the middle part of his career yet he's one of the smartest DBs I've ever seen and he's a very thoughtful person in general. I've always been impressed with how honest and how reasonable he is in interviews. Woodson will make an incredible coach some day if he goes that route. I hope he does it in GB, because the guy is a legend in my book. It could be decades before we see a CB as smart and as complete as Woodson (and I mean overall in the NFL, not just in GB). I think he'd obviously make a great CB/secondary coach, but I bet he could be a great DC if he really devoted himself to it.
I couldn't find the interview vid, but here is an article about Whitt and the secondary with some quotes from Wood that touch on what I stated above:
http://www.jsonline.com/sports/packers/115387279.html