49ers fire D-coordinator Steve Wilks after one season،
SANTA CLARA, Calif. – After just one season as defensive coordinator for the San Francisco 49ers, Steve Wilks is out.
“This morning I relieved Steve Wilks of his duties,” Niners coach Kyle Shanahan said on a conference call Wednesday, scheduled just 10 minutes before it happened. “[We’re] I'm going to end up making a change here at defensive coordinator. A really difficult decision, because [it] doesn't really say anything about Steve as a man or as a football coach. I mean, he's exactly what we wanted as a man. He's a great football coach.
“But where we're going and where we are with our team from a project standpoint and things like that, watching all of this throughout the year up until the last few days, I was pretty confident that it was a decision that was what was best for the organization.
Shanahan mostly dodged questions Tuesday about whether Wilks would stay on as defensive coordinator for a second season. He said he needed more time to sort out his feelings about his team, although he said he expected most of his employees to be back .
On Wednesday morning, Shanahan said he realized “going in a different direction” was “something I needed to do.”
In Wilks' lone season with the Niners, the defense had its share of ups and downs. A unit that led the NFL in several categories in 2022 under DeMeco Ryans — including fewest points per game allowed (16.3) and defensive expected points added (89.58) — took a step back in 2023.
San Francisco still finished third in points allowed (17.5) this season, but the 49ers finished ninth in defensive EPA (41.48) and caused significant leaks against the run in the playoffs, allowing Green's Packers Bay, the Detroit Lions and the Kansas City Chiefs to reach average. 5.1 yards per carry and 149.3 yards per game in the playoffs.
Shanahan took ownership of some of those struggles, saying he wanted Wilks to run the same system that had previously been in place with Ryans and Robert Saleh before him.
“I knew it was a challenge,” Shanahan said. “It was really tough to lose DeMeco. It was tough to lose Saleh the year before. We were committed not only to the system, but to the players that had been in the system, from our D-line or from our linebackers. They had played there for so long.
“That was my goal to not have to change them all, and to bring in Steve, who was amazing how loyal he was and trying to do it, but it ended up not being the right fit. And It hurt me to do this, but that's exactly why I had to do it.
After the defense seemed to miss nothing during a 5-0 start, Wilks then hit his share of bumps. Shanahan publicly criticized him for an all-out blitz before halftime that resulted in a Minnesota Vikings touchdown in a Week 7 loss. In Week 9, Shanahan asked Wilks to move from the stand to the field on match days.
And Shanahan used a timeout on defense as the Chiefs faced a second-and-6 from the San Francisco 37 with 2:48 left in overtime in Sunday's Super Bowl loss, later saying he didn't like the look of the game.
After the Chiefs' win, defensive end Nick Bosa said the Niners weren't prepared for some of the running plays designed for quarterback Patrick Mahomes. During locker cleaning Tuesday, Bosa offered an assessment of Wilks' performance in 2023.
“I think he does a great job with the back end, and obviously we've had some issues this year throughout the year,” Bosa said. “But that’s part of playing a full season, and I think we played our best ball at the end.”
Linebacker Fred Warner offered a more positive take on how things went, noting that the Niners finished fifth in takeaways (28) and recorded 22 interceptions, which tied them for first of the league.
“I thought it went well,” Warner said Tuesday. “I think people are obviously going to be critical just because, when you leave the No. 1 defense for a year and a guy comes in and you're not the No. 1 defense anymore, it's like, ' Oh, well, what happened?
“Well, I mean, there's a lot more to do. And it was hard work for him from the beginning because he was coming into a system where it was something that he didn't direct. He had to come in and learn what we “We did it and we were the No. 1 defense a year ago, and it's hard to maintain that type of play. But we were still one of the best defenses in this league, and I think we played our best ball when it was necessary. “
The 49ers will now begin the search for their third defensive coordinator in as many seasons. Shanahan said he would consider internal and external options. The advantage of looking internally is that he might find someone who already knows the project and would be a more natural fit, like Saleh and Ryans were.
One thing Shanahan would prefer, however, is a coordinator better equipped to connect the defensive front and secondary. Unlike Ryans and Saleh, who both had experience coaching linebackers, Wilks had extensive experience working with the secondary.
“You want to tie things together and Steve always worked to do that,” Shanahan said. “There's no doubt about it. But it was just because of his journey and the way it ended for us, it was more difficult than it needed to be and I felt like it would make us better by going to a different direction.”
Wilks came to the Niners after finishing 2022 as interim coach of the Carolina Panthers. He previously coached the Arizona Cardinals in 2018, but was fired after a 3-13 record. This led Wilks to join a 2022 lawsuit filed by Brian Flores against the NFL for racial discrimination in which Wilks alleges the Cardinals did not give him a “fair” opportunity because he is black and used him as a “transition” coach.
