The 49ers could have hired Brandon Staley to be the next defensive coordinator. Instead, they’ll reportedly hire Staley, but without putting him in charge of the defense.

The coordinator reportedly will be Nick Sorensen, a veteran assistant schooled in the Seattle Cover 3 defense. It allows the 49ers to keep their current system. Staley allows them to augment it, as needed, with other tweaks and twists.

It remains to be seen how it works. The 49ers’ defensive coordinator job had become a launching pad for head coaches, with both Robert Saleh and DeMeco Ryans creating a coaching tree for Kyle Shanahan unrelated to his offensive expertise. Sorensen could be the next to become a head coach. Or he could be the next to be one and done, like Steve Wilks.

Especially if Saleh is fired by the Jets after the 2024 season, and if he’s interested in coming back to the 49ers.

For now, the 49ers will have it both ways. Staley will join the staff. Sorensen will run the defense. The broader goal continues to be getting back to the Super Bowl and winning it.

49ers not repeating the same mistake with Nick Sorensen promotion

It may be underwhelming and not “splashy” but the hire makes sense.

The San Francisco 49ers have (finally) concluded their search for a new defensive coordinator, hiring Nick Sorensen to take the role left after moving on from Steve Wilks. Former Los Angeles Chargers head coach and Los Angeles Rams defensive coordinator Bradon Staley will serve as assistant head coach.

Staley was interviewed for the defensive coordinator position, but it looks a different role was offered. The 49ers decided to go internal with a promotion.

And they learned from the Steve Wilks debacle. Wilks was seen as someone who could infuse/reinvent the scheme that Kyle Shanahan worked on with Robert Saleh and DeMeco Ryans. Unfortunately, philosophical differences between Wilks and Shanahan, as well as Wilks and his players, prevented from him getting the best out of the defense consistently.

Shanahan tried thinking outside the box and it failed. Not miserably, but it did fail. Sorensen is Shanahan trying not to make the same mistake. He’s an internal hire and has been with the team since 2022. That’s plenty of time to get on the same page with Shanahan and know what he wants, rather than the Steve Wilks “learning on the job” philosophy the 49ers were attempting

Some of you wanted Bill Belichick or Mike Vrabel. Neither one would be awful, but how long would the 49ers have them? One year? The 49ers would then be on their third defensive coordinator in as many years. Furthermore, the 49ers had communication problems with scheme between the players and the coaching staff. This gets everyone back to what’s familiar rather than doing another complete reset of that side of the ball.

So then there’s Brandon Staley. During his interviews, it was a good question how a 3-4 guy could run a 4-3, but it seems like he’ll have other duties. Hopefully Staley is in the basement drawing up alignments and stays far away from implementing his defense. Staley proved he’s not a great head coach, and he was a defensive coordinator for one year at the Rams, but having him in the building certainly helps.

Will this work? Who knows. If you think about the issues the 49ers had with Wilks, the logic behind this one simply makes sense:

1: Consistency with the personnel and scheme already established

2: A coach that (hopefully) will be on the team for 2+ years to lower turnover rate with coaches

3: Someone who knows the secondary (which had something to do with Wilks getting hired).

No one knows how any hire will pan out. Much like the trade up for a quarterback to get Trey Lance, we didn’t know how that’d turn out either. Much like the trade, the logic, why they did this, makes sense. The 49ers had issues with consistency and coaching their style of defense. Wilks was set up for a very difficult position. While Sorensen isn’t Belichick, he knows what the 49ers do.

Plus, the 49ers run a scheme copied from stylistically similar to what Pete Carroll and the Seattle Seahawks ran. Sorensen was on the Seahawks as the secondary coach when the likes of Richard Sherman, Earl Thomas and Kam Chancellor were dominating the league. You know it as the secondary that ripped off that awesome name from the Road Warriors/Legion of Doom WWF Tag Team. Was a lot of that more Carroll than Sorensen? Maybe. But the fact is even though he’s a first time defensive coordinator, he’s shown he’s been in the room on a lot of things, and put his time in on the 49ers staff.

Yes, it’s not “splashy” like a Belichick or Vrabel hire. But the 49ers managed to keep business as usual and hopefully have someone who can communicate better to the players.

Just no cover 0’s with 15 seconds left in the half. Shanahan doesn’t like it when defensive coordinators call that. He’s kind of funny that way.