The 49ers offseason checklist gained a top priority after the Super Bowl when they let go of defensive coordinator Steve Wilks. Finding his replacement is paramount for San Francisco’s continued success on that side of the football, but there’ll also be immense pressure on the new DC given the success Wilks did have.
It appears head coach Kyle Shanahan has a specific type of coach in mind, and any search that didn’t go inside and outside the building wouldn’t have been adequate.
There are some huge names on the market, including former Seahawks head coach Pete Carroll and former Patriots head coach Bill Belichick. They’re two of the brightest defensive minds of all-time and both would quickly become the most over-qualified coordinator in the league. The same goes for former Titans head coach Mike Vrabel, who was a DC in Houston for one year before taking the head job in Nashville.
Hard reporting on the 49ers’ DC search has been tough to come by, but the latest from Mike Silver of the San Francisco Chronicle indicates the team may be leaning toward an internal candidate.
We’ve run through a list of 10 possible candidates, both in and out of Santa Clara, but with this from Silver we decided to run through the 49ers’ entire defensive coaching staff listed on the team website to find out which internal candidates could conceivably be up for the top defensive job: