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At various factors all through the season, Steve Wilks’ match as defensive coordinator of the San Francisco 49ers appeared like a square-peg-in-a-round-hole state of affairs.
And after the 49ers protection crumbled within the largest second on the largest stage potential in Sunday’s 25-22 time beyond regulation loss to the Kansas Metropolis Chiefs in Tremendous Bowl LVIII, the writing was on the wall for Wilks, who was fired on Wednesday.
“(It’s a) actually robust choice as a result of actually it says nothing about Steve as a person or as a soccer coach,” head coach Kyle Shanahan stated Wednesday, through NBC Sports activities Bay Space. “He’s precisely what we needed as a person, and he’s an ideal soccer coach. However simply the place we’re going, the place we’re at with our workforce from a scheme standpoint and issues like that. Trying by means of all of it all year long and these previous couple of days, (I) felt fairly strongly this was the choice that was greatest for our group.”
Wilks made some questionable defensive play calls all through the common season that appeared to irk Shanahan, who relocated him from the sales space to the sideline to name performs halfway by means of the season.
Then in time beyond regulation of the Tremendous Bowl in opposition to arguably the highest quarterback within the NFL, Shanahan needed to name a timeout as a result of Wilks needed to a run an ill-fated cowl zero blitz on third-and-short.
As the primary outdoors rent of Shanahan’s tenure with the 49ers, Wilks’ hiring at first look gave the impression to be an optimistically daring choice.
In any case, the 49ers ranked first within the NFL in whole protection and scoring protection the season earlier than, they usually had solely gotten higher, including star defensive deal with Javon Hargrave in the course of the offseason and former No. 2 general decide Chase Younger on the Oct. 31 commerce deadline.
However Wilks joined the group with a defensive philosophy and background that differed from what San Francisco had run the last few years. Wilks additionally didn’t herald his personal assistant coaches and he was made to work inside the confines of what SF already had.
“We dedicated to not solely the system however the gamers inside the system, the D-line, the linebackers,” Shanahan added. “They’d performed in it for such a very long time. It was my purpose to not have to vary all of them.”
The thought was that Wilks would decide up proper the place DeMeco Ryans left off earlier than taking the Houston Texans head-coaching job, simply as Ryans had picked up the place Robert Saleh left off two seasons earlier than after Saleh left to take the New York Jets head-coaching job.
And to a level, he did. It simply didn’t present when it mattered most.
San Francisco completed with the third-best run protection (89.7 yards per sport) and third-best scoring protection (17.5 factors per sport) in the course of the common season. However after reaching the postseason, the 49ers allowed 149.3 yards per sport and 25.6 factors per sport whereas enjoying from behind in opposition to each the Inexperienced Bay Packers and Detroit Lions.
Wilks isn’t any query a great defensive coordinator, he’s simply not the best coordinator for Shanahan’s system. His disastrous play-calling within the fourth quarter and time beyond regulation of the Tremendous Bowl all however solidified that he simply didn’t mesh effectively with Shanahan’s imaginative and prescient for a way he desires the 49ers to play.
From the tone of his remarks on Wednesday, it looks like Shanahan plans to advertise Wilks’ successor from inside. Some names to regulate embody defensive passing sport specialist Nick Sorensen, defensive position coach Kris Kocurek, linebackers coach Johnny Holland and defensive backs coach Daniel Bullocks.
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