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While the Carolina Panthers turned into a car crash followed by a dumpster fire, with four different coaches in the past two years, the only guy who actually did something decent with the team—Steve Wilks, who was 6-6 as the interim coach after taking over for Matt Rhule last season—was let go and brought on by the San Francisco 49ers as the team’s defensive coordinator. The 2-14 Panthers sure regret that. But now another team wants to pick off Wilks and make him the fifth 49ers assistant to be hired an NFL head coach elsewhere in the last five years.
The Chargers want to have Wilks in for an interview for their head-coaching vacancy. That is the report from NFL Network’s Mike Garafolo and Ian Rapoport. As Garafolo wrote on Twitter/X:
“The #Chargers are requesting to interview #49ers defensive coordinator Steve Wilks for their vacant head coaching job, sources tell me and @RapSheet. Wilks’ Niners defense was third in points allowed, eighth in yards this season after he went 6-6 as #Panthers interim HC.”
Kyle Shanahan Coaching Tree Growing
Should Wilks get the job, he would be the second defensive coordinator the 49ers have lost in as many years. Last year’s DC, DeMeco Ryans, was hired for the Houston Texans job last season, and has done well in his first year—the Texans went 10-7, won the AFC South and are in the playoffs in Ryans’ first year. Matt LaFleur of the Packers and Mike McDaniel of the Dolphins are other former 49ers staffers who will be coaching in the playoffs. Robert Saleh of the Jets came from the 49ers, too.
It’s worth noting that the 49ers get some credit for developing coordinators who get hired elsewhere. They got a third-round compensatory pick for losing Ryans, and could do the same if Wilks gets hired by the Chargers or elsewhere.
The .500 stint in Carolina and his tenure running the defense in San Francisco this year seems to have wiped away the stain of Wilks’ one foray as a head coach, in 2018 with the Arizona Cardinals. That went poorly, to say the least—Wilks’ Cardinals went 3-13 and he was fired after one season. The Cardinals were not much better the following year, though, at 5-10-1.
Longtime NFL commentator Chris Mortensen wrote on Twitter/X this week: “Steve Wilks, now the 49ers defensive coordinator, should not be forgotten among the very worthy head coach candidates. Panthers never should have let him go after his stellar interim stint last year. Wilks should be on short lists.”
Steve Wilks Kept 49ers Defense Steady
Wilks has left his mark on this year’s 49ers, no doubt. According to Pro Football Focus, the 49rs have the No. 2 overall defensive grade this season, at 89.9. While Wilks has ample talent to work with on the defensive side, there have also been considerable obstacles—injuries, namely—to work through.
The team’s safety group took a beating with season-ending injuries to Talanoa Hufanga and George Odum, and the 49ers have been without star tackle Arik Armstead for more than a month.
He has also had to work in several new veterans on the fly, including edge rushers Randy Gregory and Chase Young, as well as cornerback Logan Ryan and defensive lineman Sebastian Joseph-Day.
As for Wilks himself, he is keeping his focus on the playoffs, trying to stay in his lane—as he is encouraging his players to do.
“We talk about our weapons all the time, eyes, hands, hips and feet. What happens this time of the year, guys start pressing, wanting to try to make a play, get outside the scheme,” Wilks said last week. “They feel like here’s the playoffs and then now we’ve got to increase our play. Our standard still stays the same, be one of 11. So, that’s been our approach all week is just really fundamentals and technique, getting off blocks, setting edges, running to the football, because our scheme will take care of itself.”
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