Wright will also get to work with one of the best linebacker groups in football.
Former Seahawks linebacker KJ Wright says he’s joining the 49ers coaching staff as an assistant linebackers coach.
Wright broke the news himself in his most recent podcast, which came out this morning.
Wright will be working under Nick Sorensen, who has replaced Steve Wilks as San Francisco’s defensive coordinator.
Sorensen previously worked with the Seahawks in a variety of roles from 2013-2020, including as their secondary coach for four years. This past season he served as the Niners’ defensive pass game specialist and nickels coach.
Wright will also get to work with one of the best linebacker groups in football. The combination of Fred Warner and Dre Greenlaw is as tough as they come at the inside linebacker spots.
Jess Root and Seth Cox have more to talk about on the latest edition of the podcast
Seth Cox and I are back for a second show of the week to discuss things about the Arizona Cardinals and things impacting the Cardinals.
In this edition of the show, we talk about how the 49ers fired Steve Wilks and how the Commanders hired David Blough. We discuss whether the Cardinals should make any changes on their coaching staff and what sort of impact the possibility of four or five teams looking to trade up in the draft will impact the Cardinals.
Enjoy the show!
Enjoy the show with the embedded player above or by subscribing to the show on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or your favorite podcast platform, so you never miss a show. Make sure as well to give it a five-star rating!
Time and topics:
(1:00) Steve Wilks’ firing by the 49ers and David Blough’s hiring by the Commanders
(29:38) Do the Cardinals need to make changes on their coaching staff?
(38:32) Teams wanting to trade up in the draft for a quarterback
Panthers fans have seen this story with Steve Wilks before.
There has been and seemingly always will be a mutual respect between Steve Wilks and the Carolina Panthers fan base. So when the Charlotte, N.C. native was cut loose from the San Francisco 49ers on Wednesday, similarly to his departure from this franchise a year ago, the team’s faithful were left in dismay.
Here’s how Panthers fans (and a few former players) reacted to yesterday’s news:
ESPN’s Stephen A. Smith is “disgusted” by the 49ers firing DC Steve Wilks
The fallout from the San Francisco 49ers losing yet another Super Bowl is continuing on this week. Yesterday on Valentine’s Day, the 49ers did not show any love to defensive coordinator Steve Wilks as they relieved him of his responsibilities. After only one season in the Bay Area, Wilks will no longer be on San Francisco’s staff.
You know, after a season where his defense was top three in the NFL and was routinely regarded as one of the best units in football. Oh, and not to mention after a Super Bowl performance where the 49ers held the Kansas City Chiefs to only 19 points in regulation. The Chiefs’ only touchdown in regulation came after San Francisco muffed a punt return, and Kansas City scored from 16-yards out on the following play. Yup, sure seems like the fault of a defensive coordinator who had an offense led by the best quarterback in football flummoxed for most of the game.
Naturally, the shock of this move was felt far and wide, as the overwhelming majority of people realize this was a preposterous move. Leading the charge was ESPN’s Stephen A. Smith, who let his opinions be heard loud and clear:
It became immediately evident this decision was simply making Wilks the scapegoat. San Francisco had plenty of opportunities to win, and it appears this was a move to help deflect heat from a different man on the staff: head coach and offensive play caller Kyle Shanahan.
Stephen A. is right on the money with his criticisms of Shanahan’s shortcomings in the big game. Shanahan has been a coach in three Super Bowls. In each of them his teams have held at least a 10+ point lead (25 points in Super Bowl LI) and had the lead with at least three minutes remaining in regulation. He is 0-3 in his three opportunities.
San Francisco’s defense may have struggled in the playoffs against Green Bay and Detroit at times, but in the Super Bowl they were arguably the only unit that showed up to its full potential. To put it as politely as a I can, firing Steve Wilks is certainly a head-scratcher from the reigning NFC champions.
However, Seahawks legend and former Niners cornerback Richard Sherman says it’s on the players.
The San Francisco 49ers imploded in their Super Bowl loss on Sunday night, blowing another 10-point lead against the Kansas City Chiefs, this time going down in overtime. While Patrick Mahomes is admittedly a notoriously tough out, one of the most enjoyable elements of the Niners’ collapse was how strange and self-inflicted the loss was.
They couldn’t do anything about Dre Greenlaw’s freak Achilles injury as he came off the sideline, but the 49ers beat themseles in several ways down the stretch. The worst of it may be that players were simply not aware of the new overtime rules. Most of the blame has been going towards head coach Kyle Shanahan for not making sure they know the score. However, Seahawks legend and former Niners cornerback Richard Sherman says it’s on the players.
49ers players admit they were unaware of playoff OT rules:
Even better, San Francisco is now going through an assistant coach exodus, including another significant unforced error when Shanahan fired defensive coordinator Steve Wilks.
49ers assistant coaching changes this week: 🏈Defensive coordinator Steve Wilks relieved of duties. 🏈Assistant HC/RB coach Anthony Lynn becomes Commanders run-game coordinator. 🏈Pass-game coordinator Klint Kubiak becomes Saints offensive coordinator. 🏈Assistant OL coach James…
The 49ers have dominated the NFC the last five seasons like no other team, but this week’s events have inspired hope their Super Bowl window may finally be starting to close.
Now, their extremely online long snapper is busy tweeting through it.
The Seahawks missed out on the playoffs this year, but fans did get a pretty satisfying consolation prize at the end of the season. Their most bitter rivals, the 49ers advanced all the way to the Super Bowl only to blow a 10-point lead to Patrick Mahomes and the Chiefs again and lose in overtime. For an encore, head coach Kyle Shanahan has fired their defensive coordinator Steve Wilks, who was the only assistant who actually did his job well the whole season, including the Super Bowl.
The meltdown even extends to their special teams unit, which got destroyed by Kansas City on Sunday night. Now, their extremely online long snapper is busy tweeting through it. Earlier this week he shared this sad post complaining about Seahawks fans talking trash to him, taking a swipe at Eagles fans along the way.
I live in seahawk minds rent free. How are you guys somehow more pathetic than the eagles fan base?
Trolling the long snapper after a Super Bowl loss truly shows how sad you guys are 😂
We’ll give you three guesses for what happened next, but odds are you’re only going to need one. Seattle, Philly and other random fans around the NFL are rallying to dunk on Pepper in his mentions. Here are some of our favorite replies.
Tre Boston, who played for Steve Wilks in Carolina and Arizona, thinks his former coach is getting the shaft.
For two straight years, Steve Wilks has been told he’s not a fit. But one of his former players isn’t buying it.
Ex-Carolina Panthers safety Tre Boston took to Twitter on Wednesday following the announcement of Wilks’ dismissal from the San Francisco 49ers. Here’s what he had to say:
If yall can’t see what’s going on with Steve Wilks! Open your 😳! There’s a Target on his back! Which I truly don’t understand! Not one player who’s played for this man has had anything bad to say about him as a man, his coaching nor schemes! HE JUST LEAD HIS DEFENSE TO THE SB!😒
One day after sidestepping a direct question regarding Wilks’ future, 49ers head coach Kyle Shanahan told reporters he’d be moving off his defensive coordinator heading into the 2024 season. This is now the second year in a row, and the third time in his coaching career, that Wilks has seemingly gotten the shaft.
The first instance came in 2018, when the Arizona Cardinals fired Wilks from their head-coaching job after just one season. The second came last year, when he was passed up for the Panthers’ head-coaching vacancy despite reinvigorating the team in the interim role to close out the 2022 campaign.
Boston spent three seasons in Carolina under Wilks, who was his position coach from 2014 to 2016. He also followed Wilks out to Arizona for that lone season.
The Niners move on from Wilks after only one season.
The San Francisco 49ers are looking for another defensive coordinator. Head coach Kyler Shanahan announced in a conference call that defensive coordinator Steve Wilks will not be returning in 2024.
Wilks was the Niners’ defensive coordinator for one season.
Wilks replaced DeMeco Ryans, who after two seasons as DC for San Francisco was hired to be the head coach of the Houston Texans.
The Niners’ two previous defensive coordinators — Ryans and Robert Saleh — landed head coaching jobs.
Wilks was hoping to do the same.
The 49ers were eighth in the league in total defense (303.9 ypg), third in rush defense (89.7 ypg) and third in scoring defense (17.5 ppg).
However, things fell apart defensively starting with their last game against the Arizona Cardinals.
Beginning with the game against Arizona in Week 15, they allowed 136.4 rushing yards per game in seven games including the postseason and 149.3 rushing yards per game in the postseason.
They allowed 24.2 points in their final seven games including the postseason.
As good as they were for three quarters of the regular season defensively, they were pretty pedestrian in the postseason.
Kyle Shanahan has fired 49ers defensive coordinator Steve Wilks
San Francisco 49ers coach Kyle Shanahan announced Wednesday that he has fired defensive coordinator Steve Wilks.
Wilks lasted one season in San Francisco after he was an interim head coach for the Carolina Panthers last season. Wilks was the Arizona Cardinals head coach in 2018.
Steve Wilks’ defense allowed ONE TD in regulation with Patrick Mahomes as QB 1 for KC. And that TD came off a fumbled punt deep into SF territory. Now Wilks out of a job. He was the least of their problems Sunday. pic.twitter.com/zhjcNsN9d4
How do you go from being a Super Bowl participating defensive coordinator, to losing a game-changing player, to holding the #Chiefs to w/o a TD until 2:28 remained in the 3rdQ, to being “relieved of duties,” to having no chair currently available as a DC elsewhere? #SteveWilkspic.twitter.com/J859TMFsDg
The 49ers have fired defensive coordinator Steve Wilks.
There were signs at the end of the Super Bowl that Kyle Shanahan was less-than-pleased with the defensive strategy (particularly with the timeout). So this isn't the most shocking move in the world.
Wilks wasn’t the reason the 49ers lost Super Bowl 58, but someone had to go after another year without a Lombardi Trophy.
Steve Wilks was the defensive coordinator for a defense that allowed the third-fewest points in the NFL this season. He was the architect whose adjustments held the Green Bay Packers and Detroit Lions to seven total fourth quarter points as the San Francisco 49ers built back-to-back comeback wins to reach Super Bowl 58. He was the replacement for DeMeco Ryans, a high profile hire who’d led a hapless Carolina Panthers team to 6-6 as interim head coach and had kept the Niners rolling despite a depleted secondary.
Now he’s out of a job, because someone’s gotta take the fall as San Francisco’s championship drought enters its 30th year.
#49ers coach Kyle Shanahan announces on a conference call that he has fired DC Steve Wilks.
Wilks was, indeed, a step back from Ryans. Ryans’ wildly successful head coaching debut with the Houston Texans suggests pretty much anyone would have been. The Niners gave up 16.3 points per game in 2022 but 17.5 in 2023. They slid from first in expected points added (EPA) allowed per play in Ryans’ final season to 10th this fall.
via rbsdm.com and the author
But Wilks found ways to create the leverage needed to patch up his team’s weak spots. Tanaloa Hufanga’s season-ending injury in Week 10 robbed his secondary of an All-Pro safety down the stretch. Ambry Thomas and Isaiah Oliver proved lacking when given larger roles. So Wilks helped give Charvarius Ward the latitude to prove he’s one of the NFL’s top cornerbacks and turned 2021 fifth-round pick Deommodore Lenoir into an upper crust starter who allowed just a 75.2 passer rating in coverage.
When Chase Young failed to have the desired impact after arriving in a mid-season trade, he dialed back the former rookie of the year’s snap count and leaned into his defensive depth. Rather than over-correct, he stayed the course for a team that ranked 30th in blitz rate (18 percent) but tied for seventh in total sacks (48).
More importantly, Wilks’ defense held a surging Chiefs team to a pair of fourth quarter field goals in Super Bowl 58. He did so without vital off-ball linebacker Dre Greenlaw, who tore his Achilles running onto the field in the second quarter because the football gods really, really hate San Francisco right now.
That led to an increased role for backup Oren Burks and a glowing sigil of a target in the short-range over the middle of the field — i.e. the exact place where Patrick Mahomes has thrived thanks to a lack of deep threats. Because the Chiefs are a professional football team, they took full advantage. Every single one of their points came after Greenlaw’s departure thanks to a passing map that looks like this:
via nextgenstats.nfl.com
Wilks did what he could but ultimately couldn’t overcome that late-breaking curveball. He wasn’t the one who couldn’t figure out how to stop Kansas City’s predictable pressure with a championship hanging in the balance. He wasn’t the one who opted to take the ball after winning an overtime coin toss, effectively putting the Niners’ cards on the table and letting Patrick Mahomes draw until he beat them.
He isn’t the coach with the history of brutal come-from-ahead losses in the Super Bowl. That’s Kyle Shanahan — the guy who fired him.
Wilks may not have been the solution for which Shanahan asked, but he wasn’t the problem either. He continued his streak of player development, leaning into San Francisco’s strengths to bring the absolute best out of guys like Ward, Lenoir and free agent arrival Javon Hargrave. He authored a bend-don’t-break defense that covered its biggest weakness (consistent stops against the run) only for new ones to bubble to the surface at the worst possible time.
The 49ers couldn’t fire the head coach who is 35-16 over the last three regular seasons and has made it to the NFC title game or further four of the last five years. But they could push Wilks onto Shanahan’s sword after just a year of service. That’s the price of success; a symptom of complacency that sweeps away “good” in a possibly futile effort to be “great.”
Wilks will get a job somewhere else. He’ll make solid players Pro Bowlers and turn Pro Bowlers into All-Pros. It just won’t be with the Niners.
That leaves San Francisco searching for answers and its third defensive coordinator in three years. There’s no guarantee things will get better. But after four trips to the conference championship and zero rings in five years, that’s the kind of gamble the 49ers decided they needed to make.
