Washington Commanders head coach Dan Quinn suggested changes were coming to the team during the bye. On Wednesday, a change the Commanders made last week became public.
NFL Network’s Mike Garafolo reported Wednesday afternoon the Commanders have hired Steve Wilks to their staff. Wilks has NFL head coaching experience from tenures with the Arizona Cardinals and Carolina Panthers.
“The Commanders have hired Steve Wilks to work with the defensive coaches under Dan Quinn and Darone Jones, per me and Ian Rapoport,” wrote Garafolo on X. “The decision to hire Wilks was made last month. He started last week.
“Wilks will help with game planning. He won’t be with the team on game days.”
The Athletic’s Nick Jhabvala added more details about the unusual coaching arrangement the Commanders will have with Wilks. Jhabvala referred to Wilks as a “part-time assistant.”
“He doesn’t do game days; comes in on Sundays and leaves after practice on Wednesdays,” wrote Jhabvala.
Both reporters emphasized that Wilks started before the Commanders lost to the San Francisco 49ers on Monday night. Washington is not adding Wilks during the bye week as a response to its 1-4-1 start.
“The hiring is not in response to anything that happened in recent weeks or an indictment on Daronte Jones as DC,” added Jhabvala. “This has been in the works since before the start of the season, but he officially started last week.”
Wilks went 3-13 as a head coach with the Cardinals during the 2018 campaign. In that season, Arizona started Sam Bradford and Josh Rosen behind center.
As an interim head coach with the Panthers during 2022, Wilks led the team to a 6-6 record. Last season, Wilks was the defensive coordinator for the New York Jets.
Commanders Add Steve Wilks to Coaching Staff
The details around the addition of Wilks are going to puzzle some Commanders fans and pundits. The questions they are likely to ask are very warranted.
If the Commanders were planning to add Wilks as a midseason coaching staff addition weeks ago, it’s strange it’s only coming out now. The fact the team is on a bye week makes it even more suspicious. The best time to make a coaching addition or change would be with an extra week off.
It’s also unusual that Wilks is only going to contribute on a part-time basis. NFL coaching is an extremely demanding business, and it’s not at all typical for teams to employee coaches who only work certain days of the week.
But overall, the addition of Wilks should be a positive for the Commanders. He will bring 30 years of coaching experience, including about two decades at the NFL level.
Ironically, Wilks’s first coaching gig in the league was with Washington. He coached the team’s secondary in 2005 under Joe Gibbs.
Wilks then coached defensive backs for three seasons with the Chicago Bears and the then San Diego Chargers. He was part of Chicago’s defensive staff which helped the team win the NFC championship in 2006.
Wilks joined the Carolina Panthers as a defensive backs coach in 2012. He eventually rose to defensive coordinator on the Panthers staff before leaving to become a head coach in Arizona.
The Cardinals fired Wilks after one season. Afterwards, he served as defensive coordinator for the Cleveland Browns in 2019, San Francisco 49ers in 2023 and Jets in 2025. He started the 2022 campaign as the secondary and defensive pass game coordinator for the Panthers before becoming interim head coach.
Commanders Add Ex-Head Coach to Defensive Staff: Report