Analyzing whether the San Francisco 49ers were correct to fire defensive coordinator Steve Wilks.
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00:00 Dad, was it correct to fire Steve Wilkes? See, this is a very interesting discussion.
00:09 I think it was correct. I do. I can say I think it was correct, but there's something I don't like
00:18 about it. I think he was not the defensive coordinator for Kyle Shanahan. They asked him
00:27 to change his philosophy, which is really not fair to a defensive coach and not fair to the head
00:33 coach that you don't have a guy who's fully invested in what you do. So it was a bad hire
00:39 from the start. Also, he did things that were in the overtime that were really not good. The winning
00:47 touchdown, he had nobody on him and it was a play he should have been prepared for because they had
00:52 used it. Casey had used it in the Super Bowl a year earlier. So yes, I think it's fair to say
00:58 that Kyle should have fired him. What I don't like about it is it gives the impression
01:06 that they lost because of Steve Wilkes, but they didn't lose because of Steve Wilkes.
01:13 They lost because of Kyle. So it looks like camouflage. Now again, I think it's fair that
01:21 he fired him, but I come back to he looks like he scapegoated the guy. I think at least, no,
01:31 I say for the whole game, Wilkes was a better coach than Kyle. The whole game, he was a better
01:37 coach. He didn't make the coin toss decision. He held Kansas City to 19 points in regulation.
01:44 I thought until the overtime he did well. Again, it comes back to yes, fire Wilkes. Yes,
01:52 fire Shanahan. That's where I'm at. Fire them both. I actually think they shouldn't have fired
01:58 Steve Wilkes. I actually think Steve Wilkes did a hell of a job this year and they'll say, oh,
02:03 scheme or whatever. Like they had the number three defense in the league this year. Sure,
02:07 they had the number one defense last year. They gave up 17.5 points per game this year.
02:13 That's phenomenal. The number one defense in the league was Baltimore. They gave up 16.5 points
02:18 per game this year, one point fewer than the Niners, and he got fired for giving up 17 and a
02:23 half points per game. That's ridiculous. In addition, when the Niners defense struggled,
02:29 it was not a schematic issue. It was an effort issue. Am I wrong? No, it was. It was. It was
02:37 an effort issue. At what point do the players hold themselves responsible for that? Like what?
02:42 Nick Bosa, you're getting paid $34 million a year. You need a coach who can motivate you.
02:47 What the hell are you talking about? Fred Warner, Nick Bosa, Eric, like all these guys make it all
02:52 this money and they're jogging around the field in the NFC championship game when they actually
02:57 could get themselves up to play like in the Superbowl. Wilkes was really good. I thought
03:04 Wilkes did a really good job this year, considering his head coach undercut him every step of the way
03:08 and his players didn't even freaking play that hard. I thought he did pretty good.
03:14 Oh, I thought he got the shot. Okay. I would agree with you. Kyle undercut him. Bringing
03:20 him out of the coach's box onto the field was so humiliating. It was a disgusting thing to do. And
03:28 you don't see the field as well when you're on the field as when you're in the coach's box.
03:32 But let me ask you some questions because I said it was okay to fire him.
03:37 Didn't Kyle have to call a timeout because he didn't like the defensive alignment at one point
03:42 in the game? Sure. I'm sure Kyle Shanahan was down on Steve Wilkes. I'm just saying when you
03:47 take a step back and get away from Kyle's narrative, Steve did a good job. His numbers
03:52 were good. Like he didn't have a great pass rush this year and the Niners still led the
03:55 league in interceptions. They had a lot of great stats on this defense. But let me stick to the
04:01 Superbowl. Okay. In the overtime, Steve Wilkes played a soft zone and he allowed Mahomes to
04:10 drive down the field and he was unprepared for the game losing or game winning play.
04:15 You don't think that's a fireable offense, those two?
04:24 No. Okay. No. He gave up 25 and he lost to Patrick Mahomes. Okay. No. I mean, he gave up 25 points to
04:32 Patrick Mahomes. Robert Sala gave up 31 points to Patrick Mahomes, became a head coach two years
04:37 later. Okay. Freaking D'Amico Ryan gave up 44 to Patrick Mahomes last year and became a head coach
04:41 at the end of the year. Like I thought he did a good job. I don't know. I know he didn't come
04:46 through at the end. Neither did Kyle. No. Kyle. How do you fire him when you didn't come through
04:50 either? Like fireball, you like to your point, if, if that's, if, if what Wilkes did is a fireable
04:54 offense and you have to fire yourself to have to. Oh, absolutely. Or Jed has to fire him. Jed has
05:01 to fire him because he won't fire himself. Jed has to fire him. I'm going to tell you something
05:04 else. Eddie would have fired him. Eddie fired George Seaford who won two Superbowls. Eddie
05:11 would have fired him. Are you kidding? When Eddie, it was explained to Eddie what happened with the
05:16 overtime call, he would have fired him. He would have called the press conference and fired and
05:21 told you he was fired. Yeah. That's what a leader does. Yeah. He would have done it with police.
05:27 Not acceptable. It's not 49 of football. We don't do things like that. No.