The 49ers defensive coordinator was fired after one season.
The San Francisco 49ers are moving on from defensive coordinator Nick Sorensen, according to multiple reports on Tuesday evening, marking the second consecutive year that they will have fired a defensive coordinator after one season.
Last offseason, after moving on from Steve Wilks shortly after the Super Bowl, the 49ers elected to go in-house after missing out on its likely top candidate, Jets defensive coordinator Jeff Ulbrich, settling in on Sorensen to fill the role.
A 10-year NFL veteran before heading to the coaching ranks, Sorensen had never been a defensive coordinator at the NFL level, but cited his familiarity with the defense as a key reason why he earned the job.
Ultimately, one year later, the defensive coordinator is out of a job, and the 49ers are looking for their fourth defensive coordinator in four seasons.
What went wrong with the Sorensen experiment?
The fit
Looking back at last offseason, this move was questioned from the start, as it felt the 49ers were settling on an option after missing out on their true top choice.
Sorensen was a wild card because he had no defensive coordinator experience previously, and hadn’t ever called plays. The latter part was fine, but it felt like the 49ers needed a coordinator who had a strong sense of where this defense should go after the disastrous season under Wilks the year before.
More importantly, with the team electing to essentially run it back with their core group, it felt like 2024 was even more important, highlighting the pressure of having a first-year coordinator at the helm, specifically one without any experience in this position.
Additionally, one of Sorensen’s key aspects was that he was familiar with the scheme that head coach Kyle Shanahan wanted to run. Well, that scheme was a disappointment for the 49ers in 2024.
Without Arik Armstead and the requisite space-eating defensive tackles, the wide-9 defense struggled for the 49ers in 2024, especially in defending the run. San Francisco just doesn’t have the personnel up front to fill the gaps at the line of scrimmage, allowing opposing offenses to generate constant success in the run game.
A system designed to help elevate a defense’s pass rushers, it was a problem in 2024 with Sorensen at the helm, especially with the way the coordinator ran it, as the 49ers had one of the lower blitz rates in the NFL, leading to some struggles generating pressure throughout the year with their personnel.
Now, that is a Kyle Shanahan issue. The head coach has looked for familiarity in the defensive coordinator position as a way to keep his hands off, but when the scheme doesn’t match the personnel, the product on the field isn’t going to be good enough. That’s why it’ll be intriguing to see if San Francisco changes things up heading into 2025 when evaluating the position.
Going forward
The 49ers are going to need to nail this hire because they need some stability going forward at the defensive coordinator spot.
If they are going with a coach who has experience before, there have been a number of fired coaches this offseason who likely won’t command a head coaching interview over the next few seasons, providing some stability in that aspect.
But, this is a crucial hire for Shanahan as the 49ers get the boat rolling in the offseason. With the right moves in free agency and the draft, this could be a quick turnaround for San Francisco, especially with a fourth-place schedule, which figures to be one of the easiest in the league next year.
With the team going on four straight years with a new defensive coordinator, can Shanahan get it right this time around?