Defensive coordinator Steve Wilks seems to be a popular figure among the head coaches, but that may not be what he wants right now.
Arguably, Kyle Shanahan’s best skill is building a coaching staff.
Every year the 49ers have a coach who is asked to interview and is poached by another team. This year, it looks like defensive coordinator Steve Wilks will be the coach.
The Chargers have already asked Wilks to interview for their head coach position. It’s certainly an interview Wilks would like to do, and it probably won’t be his only interview. Or at least the Chargers aren’t the only team interested in him.
I don’t think Wilks will become the head coach though. I think it’s likely that Wilks will voluntarily stay with the 49ers after this season. Wilks has bounced around a lot over the last seven years. From 2018 until now, he has been one and done it with so many teams. He even attended one year of college at the University of Missouri in 2021. It seems to me that Wilks is very tired of this and continuity is something he longs for.
At least I think he would like it for one more season before he becomes the head coach of another team. He will likely get interviews from other teams as a head coach next year as well. That usually happens when you’re the 49ers coordinator. And as we know, Wilks doesn’t even want to be a head coach. Maybe he’s happy where he is. Life is good for him as the 49ers defensive coordinator.
This has to be his favorite, if not his favorite season of his career. He can call upon a defense that has tremendous talent on a Super Bowl contending team. The last time he did that was when he was the defensive backs coach of the Panthers in 2015 when they went to the Super Bowl. At this point in his career, taking it easy for a while is probably what’s best for him and what he wants..
