All 49ers

Steve Wilks Didn't Let 49ers CB Deommodore Play Nickel in Super Bowl

The 49ers still haven't gotten over their third Super Bowl loss in a row.

Grant Cohn

Feb 6, 2024; Las Vegas, NV, USA; San Francisco 49ers cornerback Deommodore Lenoir (2) during a press conference before Super Bowl LVIII at the Hilton Lake Las Vegas Resort. Mandatory Credit: Kirby Lee-USA TODAY Sports
Feb 6, 2024; Las Vegas, NV, USA; San Francisco 49ers cornerback Deommodore Lenoir (2) during a press conference before Super Bowl LVIII at the Hilton Lake Las Vegas Resort. Mandatory Credit: Kirby Lee-USA TODAY Sports / Kirby Lee-USA TODAY Sports
In this story:

The 49ers still haven't gotten over their third Super Bowl loss in a row.

While they should be focused on the upcoming season, they still have an eye toward the past as they try to figure out why they lost to the Chiefs in overtime. Recently, cornerback Deommodore Lenoir went on Richard Sherman's podcast and essentially blamed former defensive coordinator Steve Wilks, whom the 49ers fired shortly after the Super Bowl loss.

"I talked to [Steve] Wilks before the game and I was just telling him how I was feeling," Lenoir said. "Me, I watch a lot of film, so I was just seeing where the ball was going. And I was like, 'It's mainly between the hashes, it's going to the slots.' They don't really got no dominant outside guy, so I was telling him I feel like I should be in the slot this game.

"I'd never question a coach, never question decisions or nothing. That was the only time I came to him and I said that. They have their philosophy and what they felt worked, what was going to work and they made that decision. I was like alright, I'm going to just roll with it, and I'm going to try to do what I can to help us win."

And of course, the 49ers didn't. But it's hard to put all the blame on Wilks. In his defense, the Chiefs slot receiver, Rashee Rice, finished the game with just 39 receiving yards. So Wilks did a pretty good job. And if he would have taken Lenoir's advice and put him in the slot, then Wilks would have had to play Ambry Thomas on the outside in the nickel defense, and Thomas would have found a way to lose the game all by himself. So I have no problem with Wilks' decision.

Published |Modified
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