49ers head coach Kyle Shanahan on Tuesday sounded non-committal when asked about defensive coordinator Steve Wilks’ future with San Francisco. Instead he laid out the laundry list of conversations the team needed to have internally during the offseason, and said he’d not spoken to any of his assistants in the couple of days following the team’s devastating 25-22 overtime loss to the Chiefs in Super Bowl LVIII.
Shanahan answered a follow-up question about Wilks more directly, saying he expected all of the team’s coaches to be back in 2024.
Of course, there is the pending departure of offensive passing game specialist Klint Kubiak for the Saints offensive coordinator job. That’s one change that’ll be coming to San Francisco’s coaching staff, but it appears Wilks’ job is safe.
Wilks drew plenty of criticism for his defense’s role in San Francisco’s three-game losing skid in the middle of the year. They looked slow and unprepared, and a poorly-timed blitz call vs. the Vikings wound up playing a major role in Minnesota’s 22-17 win in Week 7. After the Week 9 bye, Wilks moved from the booth to the sideline and the 49ers’ defense started looking more effective.
In the playoffs things got a little sideways for the 49ers’ defense when they got demolished in the first half of the NFC championship by the Lions, and then struggled to get any late stops against the Chiefs in the Super Bowl.
It was worth wondering whether the 49ers would try and go a different direction than Wilks at the DC spot, but that doesn’t sound like it’s in Shanahan’s offseason plans. Wilks instead will get an opportunity he’s never gotten – a second consecutive year as a defensive coordinator.
He’ll get an offseason to make adjustments and another year to work with a group of players that he helped get to the Super Bowl.
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