The Falcons Have Requested to Interview 49ers DC Steve Wilks

This news seems to have legs.

Grant Cohn | Jan 11, 2024

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San Francisco 49ers

The 49ers might lose their defensive coordinator for the third time in four years.

The Atlanta Falcons have requested permission to interview Steve Wilks for their vacant head-coaching job, according to The NFL Network, and this news seems to have legs.

Remember, the Chargers also requested permission to interview Wilks, but they just fired a defensive-minded head coach, plus they have a top-five quarterback in Justin Herbert, which means they most likely will hire a high-profile offensive-minded coach this time around.

The Falcons are different. They don't have a franchise quarterback, and they just fired an offensive-minded coach in Arthur Smith, who was a complete dud. Bad franchises that don't know what kind of football team they want to be often oscillate back and forth between offensive coaches and defensive head coaches.

The Falcons are a bad franchise. And before they had Smith, their head coach was Dan Quinn -- a defensive coach -- and his offensive coordinator was Kyle Shanahan. And together, they went to the Super Bowl. They didn't win it, but they still achieved the most success the Falcons have experienced in quite a while.

Which brings us back to Wilks. He went 6-6 last season as the interim head coach of the Panthers, who are in the Falcons' division. Plus he coaches for Shanahan now, which presumably means Wilks' offensive coordinator would come from Shanahan's staff and run Shanahan's system -- someone such as assistant head coach Anthony Lynn, passing game coordinator Klint Kubiak or quarterbacks coach Brian Griese. This setup could appeal to the Falcons.

Last season, the Texans hired former 49ers defensive coordinator DeMeco Ryans to be their head coach, and he brought former 49ers passing game coordinator Bobby Slowik with him as his offensive coordinator, and together they turned a three-win team into a 10-win team in one year. Granted, they had the No. 2 pick and drafted a franchise quarterback in C.J. Stroud. The Falcons have the 8th pick in the upcoming draft. Maybe they'll find a franchise QB -- Michael Penix? -- or maybe not.

Either way, I definitely can see them hiring Wilks. And if they do, the 49ers could replace him with Daniel Bullocks, their defensive backs coach, or someone from outside the organization.

Stay tuned.

Published Jan 11, 2024

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.