There are two ways for a head coach to navigate a crushing Super Bowl loss: Take accountability for what went wrong, galvanize the unit and return with vengeance, or engage in friendly fire and burn the walls down. The San Francisco 49ers have opted for finger-pointing and scapegoating each other. Instead of heading into an offseason where much of their roster is still under contract and their quarterback is still playing on a rookie deal for two more seasons, Captain Shanahan has them on a collision course with the Titanic wreckage.
On Wednesday, Kyle Shanahan announced he was parting ways with defensive coordinator Steve Wilks in the most surprising firing of the offseason. Dumping a defensive coordinator who orchestrated a strategy that held Patrick Mahomes to one touchdown in regulation is a continuation of the 49ers fracturing from within.
It wasn’t Wilks who froze Christian McCaffrey out of the offense after he gashed the Chiefs on the ground in the first half or who elected to receive in overtime. Wilks wasn’t responsible for the low trajectory on Jake Moody’s fateful blocked extra point or for a punt bouncing off of Niners rookie Darrell Luter’s ankle leading to the Chiefs’ first touchdown.
San Francisco is self-mollifying in the immediate aftermath of its NFC Championship loss again.
On Wednesday, All-Pro receiver Brandon Aiyuk, his girlfriend, and his best friend insinuated that he wasn’t returning next season or at best signaled Aiyuk’s plan to hold out while negotiating a contract extension. Not even 48 hours after the toughest loss any gridiron team can endure, Aiyuk had a torch in hand. San Francisco’s morale problem even extends to their offensive line. Niners offensive lineman Jonathan Feliciano got liquored up and tweeted through it on Monday and inadvertently threw guard Spencer Burford under the bus for not picking up Chris Jones as he barreled toward Brock Purdy on the third down in overtime.
But Wilks’ firing could be the propellant. Wilks arrived in San Francisco with big shoes to fill. His predecessor Demeco Ryan earned a rep as one of the NFL’s brightest defensive conductors. In his final season, Ryans crafted a defense that ranked No. 1 in EPA during his final season before falling to No. 12. Defensive metrics fluctuate from year to year. Two years ago, Ryan’s defense ranked eighth in defensive EPA per play.
However, Shanahan and Wilks have butted heads philosophically all year long. At the root of Shanahan’s and Wilks’ disconnect was Wilks’ preference for 3-4 schemes though he was hired to operate Shanahan’s preferred wide-9 4-3 defense. Shanahan knew this when he hired Wilks, though. During a midseason losing streak, Wilks acknowledged the difficulty of operating an alternative scheme after doing his own thing for nearly two decades.
Wilks preferred to blitz at a significantly higher rate, which Shanahan called him out on during a Week 7 loss to the Vikings. Wilks’ zero blitz with 16 seconds left resulted in a last-second touchdown which drew Shanahan’s ire. That has been cited multiple times as a prime example of the divide, but that was also three months ago. However, Shanahan’s offense could only muster 17 points in that loss.
Wilks preferred to call plays from the booth, unlike his predecessors, and was moved to the sidelines, but the run defense was his glaring chink in his armor after it plummeted from second in the league in 2022 to 26th. That same run defense was shellacked in the first half of their comeback NFC Championship win.
After the Super Bowl, Nick Bosa implied that the back end of the defense failed to fuse with the front end. He also claimed the defense was unprepared for Mahomes’ 19-yard gain on a keeper up the middle. But using that as a justification given all the mistakes Shanahan made Sunday is just a rationalization. Over the course of a 60-minute schematic matchup on turf, there is a bevy of miscalculations being made by playcallers. Shanahan should know this better than most, However, an offseason of acclimating would have done wonders for Wilks given his track record of success.
This was supposed to be Wilks’ springboard to another head coaching job. Instead, he’s unemployed after the Super Bowl. Would Shanahan still have canned his first-year defensive coordinator after a Super Bowl parade because the defense marginally regressed from the top according to advanced analytics? Probably not. Instead of leading a revival for 2024, Shanahan threw Wilks under the bus and joined in the fog of chaos that has enveloped the Niners.
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