The San Francisco 49ers still don't have a new defensive coordinator after firing Steve Wilks following the team's painful Super Bowl 58 loss to the Kansas City Chiefs. For Adam Schefter of ESPN, Wilks' successor can come from internally.

“To me the guy that you look at on staff right now would be the former safety who’s played for the Kansas City Chiefs, Nick Sorensen,” Adam Schefter of ESPN said on The Adam Schefter Podcast.

“He’s on the staff right now, young guy right, has had something of a history with the 49ers. Right now they call him the Defensive Passing Game Specialist, Nickleback Coach.”

Sorensen has been with the 49ers since 2022 when he was a defensive assistant. In 2023, he became the team's defensive pas game coordinator and nickels coach. Before he went to San Francisco, Sorensen was with the Jacksonville Jaguars as a special teams coordinator during the 2021 season. He also played in the NFL with the Jaguars, St. Louis Rams, and the Cleveland Browns after going undrafted in the 2001 NFL Draft.

The 49ers parted ways with Wilks despite their defense ranking fourth in the regular season with just 18.8 points allowed per game and ninth in total defense with just a little under 320 yards given up per outing.

The 49ers parted ways with Wilks despite their defense ranking fourth in the regular season with just 18.8 points allowed per game and ninth in total defense with just a little under 320 yards given up per outing. Perhaps Wilks would still have his job had the Niners successfully staved off Patrick Mahomes and the Chiefs in Las Vegas, but there have also been talks that the end of Wilks' tenure with San Francisco was already written on the wall even before the Super Bowl.