Steve Wilks can’t catch a break

Steve Wilks has had a weird six years.In 2018, he got his chance to be a head coach. And he landed with the Cardinals, one of the most dysfunctional organizations in football. He faced the reality of not having a G.M. available during training camp and the preseason, because Steve Keim had been suspended after pleading guilty to a charge of extreme DUI. Then, Wilks and others allegedly/actually were compelled to use burner phones to communicate with Keim when no communication was permitted.When the season ended, Keim stayed and Wilks was fired. Which made little sense, and in turn fueled Wilks's eventual discrimination claim against the team.Wilks then landed with the Browns as defensive coordinator. After the disastrous Freddie Kitchens experiment, Wilks was among the coaches who left after one year. Out of football in 2020, Wilks was the defensive coordinator in Missouri for the 2021 season. He was hired to be the defensive coordinator with the Panthers in 2022. He took over early in the year as the interim head coach, after Matt Rhule was fired. Wilks did very well, and he should have gotten a chance to be the permanent head coach.He landed with the 49ers as the successor to...