All 49ers

Does 49ers DC Nick Sorensen Deserve to Get Fired?

Maybe they'll find someone better, but you can't help but feel for him.

Grant Cohn

Dec 17, 2023; Glendale, Arizona, USA; San Francisco 49ers defensive passing game specialist coach Nick Sorensen against the Arizona Cardinals at State Farm Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Mark J. Rebilas-USA TODAY Sports
Dec 17, 2023; Glendale, Arizona, USA; San Francisco 49ers defensive passing game specialist coach Nick Sorensen against the Arizona Cardinals at State Farm Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Mark J. Rebilas-USA TODAY Sports / Mark J. Rebilas-USA TODAY Sports
In this story:

Right now, the 49ers are deciding whether they should fire Nick Sorensen just a year after promoting him to defensive coordinator. Does he deserve to get replaced so soon?

Remember, last year the 49ers fired Steve Wilks after just one season on the job even though his defense gave up just 17.5 points per game during the regular season and 19 points in regulation of the Super Bowl loss to the Chiefs. In retrospect, the 49ers unfairly scapegoated him for their collapse.

Firing Wilks didn't make the defense better. In fact, it became worse. Sorensen is a rookie coordinator who never had called plays -- he had a learning curve.

And yet, Sorensen's defense gave up just 13.5 yards per game more in 2024 than Wilks' defense gave up in 2023. Meanwhile, Kyle Shanahan's offense gained 22.1 yards per game fewer in 2024 than it did in 2023. So technically the offense regressed more than the defense did.

And the offense lost some key players -- Brandon Aiyuk, Trent Williams, Christian McCaffrey -- but so did the defense. Sorensen didn't have Dre Greenlaw, Javon Hargrave or Arik Armstead.

And yet, in the most critical game of the season, a Thursday night do-or-die game against the Rams, Sorensen's defense rose up and allowed just 12 points. As opposed to Shanahan's offense, which shriveled in the rain and scored just six points. That's the main reason the 49ers missed the playoffs.

Then in the final three games, the 49ers defense collapsed and gave up 116 points. But those games didn't matter. The season already was over. Shanahan didn't even call the offensive plays in the season finale -- he delegated that job to Klay Kubiak. That's how little the game meant to Shanahan.

Apparently, those three meaningless games sealed Sorensen's fate. Seems unfair. Maybe they'll find someone better, but you can't help but feel for him.

Download and follow The Cohn Zohn Podcast.

Published
Grant Cohn
GRANT COHN

Grant Cohn has covered the San Francisco 49ers daily since 2011. He spent the first nine years of his career with the Santa Rosa Press Democrat where he wrote the Inside the 49ers blog and covered famous coaches and athletes such as Jim Harbaugh, Colin Kaepernick and Patrick Willis. In 2012, Inside the 49ers won Sports Blog of the Year from the Peninsula Press Club. In 2020, Cohn joined FanNation and began writing All49ers. In addition, he created a YouTube channel which has become the go-to place on YouTube to consume 49ers content. Cohn's channel typically generates roughly 3.5 million viewers per month, while the 49ers' official YouTube channel generates roughly 1.5 million viewers per month. Cohn live streams almost every day and posts videos hourly during the football season. Cohn is committed to asking the questions that 49ers fans want answered, and providing the most honest and interactive coverage in the country. His loyalty is to the reader and the viewer, not the team or any player or coach. Cohn is a new-age multimedia journalist with an old-school mentality, because his father is Lowell Cohn, the legendary sports columnist for the San Francisco Chronicle from 1979 to 1993. The two have a live podcast every Tuesday. Grant Cohn grew up in Oakland and studied English Literature at UCLA from 2006 to 2010. He currently lives in Oakland with his wife.

Home/News