Coach - Steve Wilks thread

Originally posted by OnTheClock:

"He jus came in and change all our coverages and expect us not to slip. The back is disconnected from the front"

-49er DB (not starter)

— 49ers Guy (@ShaneStern) October 30, 2023

The first anonymous direct call-out from a player on the team (allegedly)..

This account can't even pay $8 a month to prove it's legit and we're supposed to believe it?

Originally posted by ComeOnDeberg:
Shanahan noted that he hopes his players do some soul-searching during the break and identify why they looked fatigued against the Bengals.

I don't know whether to cry or laugh after hearing this. They are fatigued because they chasing the opposing offense all over the field...Can't stop the offense. Defense on the field too long...and this has been going on for several weeks. Am I in the twilight zone?

That is rich, it is Shanny himself who needs to partake is some serious introspection and deep soul searching to identify why his team looks so bad.

Originally posted by evil:

Originally posted by ninersrule4:
Yeah, nothing is going to change. I think at this point anyone expecting anything to change is delusional. This is Wilks. This has always been Wilks. He puts together terrible defensive teams and that doesn't change.

FWIW the 2017 Panthers were a fringe top 10 D with Wilks as DC.

Wilks still defers to Kyle.l here. We have 2 weeks to assess and analyze. It's not delusional to think there could be some changes coming out of the bye, but the truth is nobody here knows. It's all guesswork.

What we do know is we have been in a similar position at the same time of the season the last 2 years and those 49ers teams figured it out and turned things around. Doesn't mean that's what will happen this year, every season is different.

But the precedent set shows expecting change isn't delusional.

Agree, obviously Wilks has been disastrous for the defense thus far, and he probably wont ever be great, but he can change some things and be better. He isn't the one missing tackles, or just not playing with the same intensity we are known for on the field. Clearly his scheme is leading to a lot of open receivers in the middle of the field, a complete inability to defend screen passes, and our defense that used to be impossible to run on, struggling to stop the run. Not to mention our total failure to close on 3rd down, even third and long. But the team has been out of sync on both sides of the ball and just not clicking the same since the hot start.

I totally agree with the previous posters point, things can change and improve, and this is a league of adjustments. He can't be a dumb man or he wouldn't have been an NFL head coach or a defensive coordinator anywhere. He isn't blind, he can see his defense is getting torched better then anyone, and if the whole world is aware of it, and can see the problems, he can see the problems too. He just hasn't been successful in finding the solve.

This is the most pessimistic message board I have ever seen. Seeing the team play so badly frustrates me immensely as well. But I have been a niner fan for a long time, and have seen great teams as well as some bad ones. We still have a great team, and a great chance to turn this season around. It is not crazy to think Wilks could make some changes and get this defense performing at the level where they have been playing the last few years. We have great personnel and signing Chase Young gives us an even better pass rush. The secondary only has to cover for 3.5 seconds, for us to get lots of sacks and make things look much different. We are talking about 1 keeping coverage for one more second here.

Cheer up, be positive, the season is far from a loss, and we can still return to form and be the team, we all expected and want them to be.

If Wilks can't make this defense play better then he doesn't belong in the NFL as a DC. There is so much talent on the D line and LB that it's hard to know how they can't be dominating. I know they have problems in the secondary but it's almost the same one they had last season. Jimmie Ward is the only guy that's gone and he wasn't a shutdown CB.

Originally posted by 49er-from-Yavin-IV:

Originally posted by NYniner85:

Originally posted by OnTheClock:

"He jus came in and change all our coverages and expect us not to slip. The back is disconnected from the front"

-49er DB (not starter)

— 49ers Guy (@ShaneStern) October 30, 2023

The first anonymous direct call-out from a player on the team (allegedly)..

Yeah I think it's pretty clear that the secondary is confused and the D even with all these stars needs a better DC.

dude was suppose to run Kyle's scheme, not his. We've finally lost some juice losing all these good coordinators. Forced to hire outside the organization hurt this squad.

The individual choice for the job was wrong and not necessarily the logic behind hiring outside of the building. There had to be better options than Steve Wilks.

Would agree. Needs to go back to most of old schemes & very little of his stuff mixed in to the defense. Think they could run the old defense without a DC & get more production than with Wilks right now

Originally posted by WendellTyler:

Originally posted by evil:

Originally posted by ninersrule4:
Yeah, nothing is going to change. I think at this point anyone expecting anything to change is delusional. This is Wilks. This has always been Wilks. He puts together terrible defensive teams and that doesn't change.

FWIW the 2017 Panthers were a fringe top 10 D with Wilks as DC.

Wilks still defers to Kyle.l here. We have 2 weeks to assess and analyze. It's not delusional to think there could be some changes coming out of the bye, but the truth is nobody here knows. It's all guesswork.

What we do know is we have been in a similar position at the same time of the season the last 2 years and those 49ers teams figured it out and turned things around. Doesn't mean that's what will happen this year, every season is different.

But the precedent set shows expecting change isn't delusional.

Agree, obviously Wilks has been disastrous for the defense thus far, and he probably wont ever be great, but he can change some things and be better. He isn't the one missing tackles, or just not playing with the same intensity we are known for on the field. Clearly his scheme is leading to a lot of open receivers in the middle of the field, a complete inability to defend screen passes, and our defense that used to be impossible to run on, struggling to stop the run. Not to mention our total failure to close on 3rd down, even third and long. But the team has been out of sync on both sides of the ball and just not clicking the same since the hot start.

I totally agree with the previous posters point, things can change and improve, and this is a league of adjustments. He can't be a dumb man or he wouldn't have been an NFL head coach or a defensive coordinator anywhere. He isn't blind, he can see his defense is getting torched better then anyone, and if the whole world is aware of it, and can see the problems, he can see the problems too. He just hasn't been successful in finding the solve.

This is the most pessimistic message board I have ever seen. Seeing the team play so badly frustrates me immensely as well. But I have been a niner fan for a long time, and have seen great teams as well as some bad ones. We still have a great team, and a great chance to turn this season around. It is not crazy to think Wilks could make some changes and get this defense performing at the level where they have been playing the last few years. We have great personnel and signing Chase Young gives us an even better pass rush. The secondary only has to cover for 3.5 seconds, for us to get lots of sacks and make things look much different. We are talking about 1 keeping coverage for one more second here.

Cheer up, be positive, the season is far from a loss, and we can still return to form and be the team, we all expected and want them to be.

Nice post. I know it's not ideal, but I look at a few teams that just got into the playoffs and turned it on at the right time. The 2011 Giants come to mind. We've all seen some bad Niners teams and especially defenses and had no hope for them. This is not that situation. We're still stacked and our team caught the football flu. Our team is capable of running the table if they just get in the playoffs, which I think they will.

As a side note it sucks Kyle cannot figure out our slumping problems. We thought we cured our beginning of season slumps only for it to appear in the middle of the season this year. It starts at the top and it's on him to fix it this year. He's done it in the past so have faith in the man.

Originally posted by DrEll:
That Fangio loss is looming large. The guy was consulting for us. f**k Shanny for letting him walk and picking up this waste.

He was consulting for the Eagles and several other teams too. That meant nothing. Fangio would have also caused issues considering how wedded he is to his scheme and the current defensive personnel don't fit it.

I think the mistake was not continuing with what was working for them, young, open minded and energetic assistants looking to make a name for themselves in this league. They interviewed a couple of guys like that and opted for the old retread instead.

Still feel like this is who Kyle should have hired.

https://www.tennesseetitans.com/team/coaches-roster/chris-harris

Originally posted by Phoenix49ers:
Still feel like this is who Kyle should have hired.

https://www.tennesseetitans.com/team/coaches-roster/chris-harris

I was liking that possible hiring too. I was weary of Wilks once you brought up his (track record back then) of being a DC. But then one side of me said, "well Wils has never had talent like this before" and to tell you the truth what DC ever has!!! This is one of thee most stacked defenses I've ever seen the 9ers have and Wilks is coaching them like there's a bunch of undrafted rookie free agents starting.

Was listening to a podcast last night. It was mentioned that if you really look at his coaching history he did not have a lot of DC history which is fine but I thought there was more there for some reason.

Also, he leans more towards the DB side of things from his history and Saleh and Demeco come from LB resumes. Two very different animals and history. I really did think there was a lot more DC history there for some reason and not just position coach. All of his history or much of it are one or two year stints and on to the next.

I don't think this will be a long term hire but they will make it thru the season. If we can make the SB with Jimmy I guess we can with Steve.

As a coach:

• Johnson C. Smith (1995–1996)
  Defensive coordinator
  
• Savannah State (1997–1998)
  Defensive coordinator
  
• Savannah State (1999)
  Head coach
  
• Illinois State (2000)
  Defensive backs coach
  
• Appalachian State (2001)
  Defensive backs coach
  
• East Tennessee State (2002)
  Defensive coordinator
  
• Bowling Green (2003)
  Defensive backs coach
  
• Notre Dame (2004)
  Defensive backs coach
  
• Washington (2005)
  Secondary coach
  
• Chicago Bears (2006–2008)
  Defensive backs coach
  
• San Diego Chargers (2009–2011)
  Defensive backs coach
  
• Carolina Panthers (2012–2014)
  Defensive backs coach
  
• Carolina Panthers (2015–2016)
  Assistant head coach & defensive backs coach
  
• Carolina Panthers (2017)
  Assistant head coach & defensive coordinator
  
• Arizona Cardinals (2018)
  Head coach
  
• Cleveland Browns (2019)
  Defensive coordinator
  
• Missouri (2021)
  Defensive coordinator
  
• Carolina Panthers (2022)
  Defensive passing game coordinator & secondary coach
  
• Carolina Panthers (2022)
  Interim head coach
  
• San Francisco 49ers (2023–present)
  Defensive coordinator
  

Originally posted by CatchMaster80:
If Wilks can't make this defense play better then he doesn't belong in the NFL as a DC. There is so much talent on the D line and LB that it's hard to know how they can't be dominating. I know they have problems in the secondary but it's almost the same one they had last season. Jimmie Ward is the only guy that's gone and he wasn't a shutdown CB.

The failure to defend screen passes is really irritating. With the LBs they have and the way Oliver comes up to defend they shouldn't be giving u big yards so consistently. When they rush the passer they should be batting down more passes. When the blitz, they aren't doing a very good job of disguising it. Seems like the other team is always able to pick it up. Just a few things that can be improved without changing players. Maybe Wilks just isn't the right guy but there's no reason this defense should be having these problems.

The DC is taking the heat for a lot. I agree he needs to go but I also think the players need to step it up. Missed tackles are killing us. Penalties and low energy are also contributing to the hot mess we have. Something needs to change and change quick.

Originally posted by Bringbackedjr:
The DC is taking the heat for a lot. I agree he needs to go but I also think the players need to step it up. Missed tackles are killing us. Penalties and low energy are also contributing to the hot mess we have. Something needs to change and change quick.

IMO, that's where having Wilks on the sideline should help, to get in their faces when they do things like miss tackles or get beat for a TD. Stop letting your position coaches do the dirty work.

Hell Wilks is old school Kyle should have known he was probably going to do his own thing. He's been a HC twice and Kyle is younger than him. I can hear him now

"I'm not going to let some kid whose been a HC for a few years tell me how to run a Defense and I've been in the league for 30 or more years." "I forgot more defensive plays than he knows"

That's probably what he thinks.

Originally posted by Kolohe:

Originally posted by Bringbackedjr:
The DC is taking the heat for a lot. I agree he needs to go but I also think the players need to step it up. Missed tackles are killing us. Penalties and low energy are also contributing to the hot mess we have. Something needs to change and change quick.

IMO, that's where having Wilks on the sideline should help, to get in their faces when they do things like miss tackles or get beat for a TD. Stop letting your position coaches do the dirty work.

Agreed.