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The San Francisco 49ers tried bringing in an outside defensive coordinator, but it didn’t work out. They fired Steve Wilks after just one season.

Now, they’re relying on promoting Nick Sorensen internally to fill that role, with some input from former Chargers head coach Brandon Staley. Their goal is to get the Niners back to playing strong defense after a slight decline last season.

“We all know the standard here and we all want to win, we all want to play great defense and that’s the expectation,” Sorensen said Friday in his first public remarks since being hired earlier this offseason.

“But I have that on myself. Our coaches do, our players do. What is said, I’m not really worried about it. I just know what we want to get done and what I want to get done.”

Under Wilks last season, the 49ers didn’t meet the high defensive standard set by previous coordinators Robert Saleh and DeMeco Ryans. This was especially evident in the playoffs when they struggled against the run against Green Bay and Detroit, and then faltered late in a Super Bowl loss to Patrick Mahomes and the Kansas City Chiefs.

The 49ers excelled in many key areas in 2022 under Ryans. But last season, with Wilks in charge, they ranked third in points allowed and 10th in more detailed efficiency stats like Expected Points Added.

Wilks had trouble adjusting to Coach Kyle Shanahan’s preferred system. The defense struggled against the run all season and fell short in the playoffs, prompting a change.

This change led to Sorensen’s promotion. He transitioned from his role as a passing game specialist to overseeing the entire defense for the first time in his coaching career.

Sorensen joined the 49ers in 2022 as a defensive assistant, filling in for linebackers coach Johnny Holland when he was dealing with cancer. During his time in San Francisco, Sorensen also led weekly meetings focused on creating turnovers and limiting mistakes.

Before joining the 49ers, Sorensen was the special teams coach in Jacksonville in 2021. He also spent eight seasons in Seattle as an assistant, focusing on the secondary and special teams, where they used a defensive scheme similar to the 49ers’.

Resetting that rule from last year that the 49ers probably will get hit with again.

The NFL Schedule is due to drop next week. Which means get your BBQs and schedule release parties ready. If you do that sort of thing.

There are a few thoughts I may make before then, but it’s probably important to bring up the Thursday Night Football rules or how the NFL has basically did away with a lot of them.

Before 2023 it was simple: No team could play on Thursday Night Football more than once. Keep in mind, that’s the prime time game. There’s always the Thanksgiving day-games that throw things out of whack. Typically the NFL has been pretty good about this giving teams like the Dallas Cowboys two Thursday Night games in a row which comes with a full week of rest.

There were many obvious reasons for why teams did only one Thursday Night appearance per season, most having to do with players stating how dangerous it is. Well in 2023, those things didn’t exist anymore, as the NFL gave some flexibility to Thursday Night Football, where some teams had to play it, but others didn’t have to.

The ones who didn’t? In 2023, the initial schedule had the Atlanta Falcons not playing in the game.

Who did? Why the San Francisco 49ers, of course. Other teams like the Kansas City Chiefs and Philadelphia Eagles were in on the fun as well. It made sense for ratings and money, it didn’t make sense for teams that had to play two Thursday Night Games in a season.

Oh, did I not tell you that? By making that small adjustment, the NFL also gave Thursday Night Football the BOGO treatment. Now teams can play in two of these dangerous games, not just one while other teams don’t need to play in it at all.

Despite how dangerous the short week is, I hope the competitive advantage this offers some teams isn’t lost here. The NFL wound up not flexing a single game in 2023 which makes things all the more head-scratching. Why do the 49ers have to do this twice and the other competitive teams don’t have to. Well, maybe?

Then again, I’m still asking about why the NFL had no initiative to fix the practice field in the lead-up to the Super Bowl so I probably think about this too much.

The 49ers were one of the lucky recipients of the BOGO treatment. Not only getting stuck with Thanksgiving Night, but also an additional Thursday game. The NFL also was kind enough to make them play on Christmas Day. Not only did they get the short week twice, they also had to give up both holidays.

At least the NFL let them play on New Year’s Eve so they could spend New Year’s Day flying back from the District of Columbia.

The good news was, the 49ers didn’t get flexed in during a successful season— that could have been worse. For fans and a team. At least the 49ers knew it was coming as far back as May. Other teams weren’t as beneficial.

Which brings me to the rule once more. The 49ers very well could get one Thursday Night Football appearance this year, but there’s always that second one, and the timing of it could not be ideal. All of this, ALL of this could be avoided if the NFL just made it for teams returning from bye and maybe working a second bye in with a Thanksgiving flex (how that would work, I have no idea). Not the greatest for teams on vacation, but at least it’s less dangerous. Maybe with the 18-game schedule they are whispering about, it happens.

It doesn’t remove the sad part of how the above proposal would still hurt the fans. Fans will look at the schedule this week and make their travel plans. Those going later in the season after Week 13 (when flexing starts) means their plans could be ruined.

If I ventured a guess, I think what we’ll see this week with the schedule reveal is the 49ers will have one Thursday Night game in October. I’d say Halloween. I don’t think a second one will show up on the schedule. That game will be flexed in towards the end of the season for a possible divisional showdown. This guess is based on entirely nothing—just picking a day on the calendar.

What are your thoughts on the 49ers possibly playing two Thursday Night games? Are you not a fan of it as well, or would you be fine with it, even if it risks injury in a possible Super Bowl—or—Bust year?