Kyle Shanahan lost an integral part of his coaching staff following DeMeco Ryans' recent departure for the Houston Texans. Ryans' exit has left some big shoes to fill, and the San Francisco 49ers organization is hoping that new defensive coordinator Steve Wilks, who served as the interim head coach for the Carolina Panthers last season, is able to fill that void.
Wilks has now spoken out about his plans with regard to the changes he intends to implement for the 49ers' defense. As it turns out, the 53-year-old coach is happy with the situation that his predecessor has left him to deal with, and at this point, he does not intend to make any major iterations to the system the team already has in place:
“I think you have to embrace the success that they’ve had here. I think there’s a foundation that we all agree we wanted to keep,” Wilks said in his press conference, via Myles Simmons of PFT. “And I think there’s an opportunity, as we go through the process, which we already have, is to try to tweak things a little bit. I still think there’s room for improvement. If you talk to the players, they would tell you the same.
“So, when it’s not broke, you don’t really want to try to fix it. And once again, we’ve had a lot of success around here and we just want to continue to build on that.”
Wilks did hit at some minor “tweaks” here and there, but generally speaking, it appears that the veteran coach is happy to just build on the good things that DeMeco Ryans has created within the 49ers' defensive system.
Wilks continued to talk up San Francisco as he heaped praise on the fact that the 49ers have had one of the best defenses in the league over the past few seasons:
“I think — and my philosophy is the same, I’ve always had this — everything we do starts up front. And when you look at how dominant we’ve been over the years, it’s because of our defensive line,” Wilks said. “We’ve done a great job building that through the draft. As I just alluded to, we did some great things in free agency this past year. So, [defensive line coach Kris] Kocurek does a tremendous job. He’s one of the best in the business at what he does. And he’s had a major impact on this defense.
“So, that was really the biggest thing that stood out to me was just how great we were up front consistently over the years.”
Last year, the 49ers were No. 1 in the NFL in both yards allowed and points allowed. Wilks is clearly facing a lot of pressure to maintain his defense's elite status, but it is also clear that the Niners are confident that their new man is more than capable for the task at hand.
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