49ers fire DC Wilks, Chiefs retain Spagnuolo with new deal after Super Bowl LVIII

Defensive coordinators (DC) Steve Wilks of the San Francisco 49ers and Steve Spagnuolo of the Kansas City Chiefs faced different ends after Super Bowl LVIII, in which the Chiefs beat the 49ers in overtime.

Wilks was fired by the 49ers, who announced the decision on Wednesday.

"This morning I relieved Steve Wilks of his duties," the team's head coach, Kyle Shanahan, said in a conference call. "[We're] going to end up making a change here at defensive coordinator. A really tough decision, because [it] really says nothing about Steve as a man or as a football coach. I mean, he's exactly what we wanted as a man. He is a great football coach."

"But just where we're going and where we're at with our team from a scheme standpoint and things like that," Shanahan added. "Looking through it all throughout the year to these last few days, I felt pretty strongly that this was a decision that was best for the organization."

The 2023 campaign was the first season Wilks worked in the DC position with the 49ers. His predecessor, DeMeco Ryans, helped the team allow the fewest points per game (EPA) (16.3), with the defensive expected points added (89.58) in the 2022 season. By contrast, the team allowed 17.5 points per game, the league's third-fewest in the 2023 campaign. Their defensive EPA dropped to 41.48, only the ninth-best of all 32 teams.

Moreover, the 49ers allowed 149.3 rushing yards per game and 5.1 yards per carry against the Green Bay Packers, the Detroit Lions and the Chiefs in the postseason. Shanahan had good reasons to be dissatisfied with Wilks' work.

Wilks' Chiefs counterpart, Spagnuolo, signed a contract extension with his side, the team announced on Wednesday.

"Very grateful for the job that Spags did with the defensive side," the team's head coach, Andy Reid, said on Tuesday. "I thought that they were a great example to everybody of taking young guys, teaching them and watching them grow."

Spagnuolo worked as an assistant to Reid for eight seasons during their time with the Philadelphia Eagles between 1999 and 2006. They joined hands again at the Chiefs in 2019 and have won three Super Bowl titles since then.

The Chiefs finished the 2023 regular season with the second-fewest points allowed per game (17.3). All four teams they faced in the playoffs, the Miami Dolphins, the Buffalo Bills, the Baltimore Ravens and the 49ers, were among the league's top six in scoring, but the Chiefs allowed only 15.75 points per game in the postseason.