How Steve Wilks Revived the 49ers Defense

Wilks made a few key adjustments to his secondary that unlocked everything for the 49ers.
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During the bye week, it seemed as though the 49ers made only two changes to their defense: They traded for Chase Young, and they moved Steve Wilks from the coach's booth to the sideline.

But those weren't the most important changes the 49ers made to their defense. Those were just the obvious ones.

Wilks made a few key adjustments to his secondary that unlocked everything for the 49ers. And he didn't talk about these adjustments before the game. He just made them, and in the process he confused the Jaguars and unlocked his pass rush.

First, Wilks benched nickelback Isaiah Oliver, which was overdue. Oliver is a veteran the 49ers signed this offseason to replace Jimmie Ward, but has been a miserable disappointment. He can't cover or tackle, which means he can't play. So Wilks benched him, moved Deommodore Lenoir to the nickel spot and started playing Ambry Thomas outside.

In addition, Wilks finally started calling more aggressive coverages, such as press-man coverage. He had been hesitant to call this earlier in the season because Charvarius Ward commits so many penalties in man coverage -- he committed two illegal contact penalties that both resulted in automatic first downs against the Jaguars.

But the tighter coverage forced Jaguars quarterback Trevor Lawrence to hold the ball longer than usual, and forced his offensive line to block longer than usual, which was bad news for the Jaguars, because their offensive line can't block the 49ers defensive line for more than a couple seconds. And once the tight coverage took away the quick passes, the 49ers' expensive defensive line took over the game.

Give Wilks credit for figuring out the best way to use a defense he never has coached before this season.


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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.