One week after defensive coordinator DeMeco Ryans departed to become the Houston Texans’ head coach, the San Francisco 49ers have his replacement.
The Niners are hiring Steve Wilks, who was most recently the interim head coach of the Carolina Panthers, as their next defensive coordinator. Wilks’ hiring comes a day after his formal interview with the team.
In Wilks, the Niners are getting someone with NFL experience as a head coach, defensive coordinator and defensive backs coach. Last season, he was Carolina’s defensive passing game coordinator and secondary coach before being promoted to interim head coach upon Matt Rhule’s firing.
With Wilks at the helm, the Panthers went 6-6 and came up just short of winning the NFC South division crown. Before that, Wilks was the Arizona Cardinals’ head coach in 2018, the Panthers’ defensive coordinator in 2017 and the Cleveland Browns’ defensive coordinator in 2019.
Like Ryans and Robert Saleh before him, Wilks prefers a base 4-3 defense that mixes coverages and emphasizes generating pressure with the front four.
Wilks was considered a finalist to become the Panthers’ head coach on a permanent basis, but Carolina opted for Frank Reich instead.
While Wilks did not get a head-coaching job this offseason, he landed in a spot that has been a springboard to those positions. Both of the previous coaches to hold the defensive coordinator position under Shanahan (Ryans and Saleh) have gone on to become head coaches.