After word leaked out 10 days ago, the Detroit Lions made it official on Tuesday that Joe Marciano has been hired as the special teams coordinator.

Marciano replaces John Bonamego who left the organization to become head football coach at Central Michigan.

Maricano spent 2014 as a special teams consultant for the Minnesota Vikings. Previous to that he served as the special teams coordinator for the Houston Texans for a dozen seasons (2002-2013).

Coach Jim Caldwell issued this statement: “Joe obviously has had a remarkable career. 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 (special teams coordinators) 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. 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.” 

The Lions coaching and scouting staffs will be in Indianapolis this week for the NFL Scouting Combine which starts on Wednesday.

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