The Detroit Lions added Joe Marciano to their staff on Tuesday as special teams coordinator.

Marciano most recently served as a special teams consultant for the Minnesota Vikings in 2014. He spent the previous 12 seasons as special teams coordinator for the Houston Texans.

“Joe obviously has had a remarkable career,” Lions coach Jim Caldwell said. “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.”

Marciano also has held positions with the New Orleans Saints as special teams/tight ends coach from 1986 to 1995 and with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers as a special teams coach from 1996 to 2001.