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Lions Hire Joe Marciano As Special Teams Coordinator

By Ashley Dunkak
@AshleyDunkak

CBS DETROIT - The Detroit Lions announced Tuesday the hiring of Joe Marciano as special teams coordinator. Marciano spent the 2014 season as a special teams consultant for the Minnesota Vikings, and he had previously worked as special teams coordinator for the Houston Texans from 2002 to 2013.

"Joe obviously has had a remarkable career," Lions head coach Jim Caldwell stated in a press release. "First of all, we were trying to find a guy that had a significant amount of experience. We have a fairly veteran team and we wanted to make certain that we had a guy in there who has been through it before and understands how to implement a new system. Not only that, he had results in the past.

"The role they play is vast within the framework of a team because of the fact that they probably touch, motivate and talk to more players than anyone except for the head coach, so it requires a guy with a unique skill level to be able to do that," Caldwell continued. "He has to be a fine communicator. He also has to have a real fine sense of talent and how to utilize that all within the framework of special teams."

Marciano replaces John Bonamego, who left the Lions to become the head coach at Central Michigan, his alma mater. Bonamego had been with Detroit for two seasons.

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