Will the 49ers go with an internal because of this…….
Following the loss of Steve Wilks, who was let go after the Super Bowl, the San Francisco 49ers are still in search of a defensive coordinator with the NFL Combine in less than a week.
There has been almost little talk this summer about interviews for outside candidates, which is surprising given the prominence of the opening that attracted a lot of attention the previous offseason and the fact that other applicants interviewed before the 49ers decided on Wilks.
Will the 49ers choose an internal candidate to be defensive coordinator given the lack of excitement and the impending deadline?
Given the defensive problems throughout the second half of the season and the apparent lack of communication between Kyle Shanahan and the defensive coordinator, as well as certain players, the decision to replace Steve Wilks appeared inevitable.
However, the 49ers will find it challenging to perform a comprehensive search to discover their ideal candidate given the timing of the transfer (after the Super Bowl).
Not only have several big names dropped out of the running or decided to stay where they are, but San Francisco is running out of time as the NFL Combine is in a few days.
Taking into account that no formal requests for interviews have been made with outside candidates, it seems likely that San Francisco will look to hire someone already working in the building to fill the position.
Furthermore, the 49ers have a history of going inside. Following Robert Saleh’s departure to become the head coach of the New York Jets, linebackers coach DeMeco Ryans was promoted to defensive coordinator.
There is always going to be some risk associated with any move, and this will be the case if the 49ers decide to make an internal hiring to cover the void this offseason.
Firstly, all of San Francisco’s defensive coaches—many of whom are exceptional specialists for their position group—have never called plays before.
Playcalling experience isn’t a huge problem to me, but considering how successful the 49ers have been in the past with rookie playcallers, it only puts more pressure on whoever is selected to play in 2024, especially since it has already been established that first-year coordinators are fired.
More significantly, though, the move would feel different because the 49ers had every internal coach in the books to promote during the previous offseason, but they finally decided against it and hired Steve Wilks, whose hiring didn’t go as planned.
If they had chosen the internal route, the promotion from within last offseason would have gone much more smoothly, giving their new defensive coordinator more time to become settled in and make the most of this present window of time with the main core group.
Going into last offseason, it felt that 2023-24 was the two-year window to win a championship with this core of players, as San Francisco will likely have some tough decisions to make next offseason.
The 49ers lost one of those years to develop their defensive coordinator by selecting Wilks over an internal candidate, which increases the significance of 2024 from a play-calling standpoint.
Regarding DeMeco Ryans, a number of people—including myself—questioned him early in his career due to a few errors, but the defensive coordinator overcame those setbacks to emerge as a superior assistant in Year 2.
If the appointment is internal, there will be greater pressure to make the correct choice this time around because the new defensive coordinator won’t have as much time to succeed given how the team’s core may start to disintegrate after the season.
This season, head coach Kyle Shanahan also had to take on more duties, occasionally replacing Steve Wilks, which meant he had more work on his hands.
Although Shanahan has previously been called “controlling,” it appears he would much rather leave his defensive coordinator handle the defensive efforts rather than interfering.
If the change is internal and has a narrowing window, would Shanahan still try to influence things on the defensive end, or will he give his future defensive coordinator all the authority to take over those duties right away?
Only when the 49ers return to action in the autumn will we know the answers to the questions. But with the offseason beginning to heat up, their announcement on the next defensive coordinator might happen sooner rather than later.
