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Is 49ers Defensive Coordinator Nick Sorensen an Upgrade Over Steve Wilks?

Sorensen has been on the 49ers staff since 2022. He originally spent eight years as an assistant for Pete Carroll and the Seahawks, which is why the 49ers want him.

Grant Cohn

Jul 25, 2024; Santa Clara, CA, USA; San Francisco 49ers defensive coordinator Nick Sorensen answers questions at a press conference following Day 3 of training camp at SAP Performance Facility. Mandatory Credit: D. Ross Cameron-Imagn Images
Jul 25, 2024; Santa Clara, CA, USA; San Francisco 49ers defensive coordinator Nick Sorensen answers questions at a press conference following Day 3 of training camp at SAP Performance Facility. Mandatory Credit: D. Ross Cameron-Imagn Images / D. Ross Cameron-Imagn Images
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The 49ers essentially blamed Steve Wilks for their latest Super Bowl collapse. They fired him a few days later, then promoted Nick Sorensen to defensive coordinator.

Sorensen has been on the 49ers staff since 2022. He originally spent eight years as an assistant for Pete Carroll and the Seahawks, which is why the 49ers want him. Robert Saleh was on that staff too, and the 49ers want to return to the defense Saleh built. They feel Wilks strayed too far from its core principles.

Specifically, the 49ers were unhappy with his run defense which gave up 4.1 yards per carry. They also were unhappy with his third-down defense which gave up a first-down conversion 42.5 percent of the time. So even though his defense gave up just 17.5 points per game, he had to go. He had underperformed. Sorensen would do better.

Through two games, Sorensen has not done better. His defense is allowing 5 yards per carry, 21 points per game and a third-down conversion rate of 59.1. In the key areas where Wilks defense fell short, Sorensen's defense has performed even worse.

And it's worth remembering that Wilks' original sin as 49ers defensive coordinator came in Minnesota when he called a blitz before the half and gave up a long touchdown catch to Jordan Addison who was covered one on one by Charvarius Ward. Kyle Shanahan told the sideline reporter he disagreed with the play call and the 49ers never seemed to forgive Wilks for his decision.

Cut to this past weekend. Sorensen put safety George Odum on the best wide receiver in the NFL, Justin Jefferson, and gave up a 97-yard touchdown catch. That was an awful play call, much worse than the one Wilks made last year.

I'm not saying Sorensen is on the hot seat -- we're merely two weeks into the season. But he can't afford to be worse than Wilks. And so far, he is.

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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.

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