Shannon Sharpe and Chad Ochocinco have emerged as two of the more honest, verbose new media personalities in the era of podcasts. The NFL legends don’t hesitate to call it how they see it.
And the topic of the San Francisco 49ers axing defensive coordinator Steve Wilks following Super Bowl 58 got them both riled up, sparking multiple reactions across the NFL world for how they reacted.
What Were the Words NFL Media Personalities Used To Defend Steve Wilks?
Sharpe, the three-time Super Bowl winner who played for 49ers head Kyle Shanahan’s father, Mike, with the Denver Broncos, ripped into the Niners for how they handled Wilks on the Nightcap Show.
He mentioned how the 49ers handled a past defensive coordinator differently after falling to the Kansas City Chiefs in the Feb. 2020 big game.
“Guess what? Robert Saleh was the defensive coordinator when they lost the Super Bowl. He didn’t get fired — he got another head coaching job,” Sharpe said regarding the now New York Jets head coach Saleh.
Sharpe wasn’t through. He shared how Shanahan and the 49ers didn’t give similar treatment to Saleh’s replacement.
“DeMeco Ryans was the defensive coordinator when they lost the NFC Championship Game. He didn’t get fired — he got a head coaching job,” Sharpe said. “Are you going to put all of this [on Wilks]?”
Sharpe then had to put aside his previous lengthy relationship with Shanahan to state his case.
“I’ve known Kyle Shanahan since he was 12. I played for his dad. So this is not easy for me. But I think it deserves to be said…I don’t agree with the decision,” Sharpe said.
“Because there were decisions that you made, like taking the ball [in overtime]. Why the hell do you take the ball in overtime when you know the first score or touchdown will not win you the game? And then you allow the opposing team to know what you got. That’s why in college they defer because they want to see what you got to do.”
Meanwhile, Ochocinco shared why he was displeased with the 49ers’ choice to sever ties with Wilks.
“They have had a phenomenal season defensively. They had a great season. Under Wilks, they were a top-five defense in the NFL,” Ochocinco began.
He then drew parallels between a past botched title game involving Shanahan: The Super Bowl 51 loss, which involved Shanahan as the offensive coordinator of the Atlanta Falcons.
“You were up 28-3…and you stopped running the goddamn ball to take time off the clock,” Johnson recalled of that infamous Falcons meltdown against the New England Patriots.
“Now, let’s talk about this game. In the third quarter, your best offensive weapon, CMC [Christian McCaffrey], stopped running the ball with him. You put the ball in the air. There were two downs where you should’ve run the ball. You gave the ball back to Patrick Mahomes. Again, those are on you as a head coach.”
Reactions Come in for Sharpe/Ochocinco Defending Wilks
Some fans believed Wilks should’ve been canned by the 49ers before the Super Bowl — by midseason, to be exact.
“If asked to redo this season 49ers would have fired Wilks midseason….stop this notion that he was fired just because of SB. For the amount of individual quality it was disconnected from the start,” one fan responded to Sharpe/Ochocinco on X (formerly known as Twitter).
One other fan, though, agreed with the notion that the game didn’t need to fall on Brock Purdy’s shoulders and that Shanahan should’ve run the ball.
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But another fan concurred that Wilks wasn’t a force as defensive coordinator all season long.
“Steve Wilks wasn’t that great all year. He is replaceable. He inherited a defensive that was coached by Robert Saleh and DeMeco Ryans who are now both head coaches in the NFL,” the fan said.
Finally, one last fan chose to put the loss not on Wilks but on Shanahan — who is now 0-2 as a head coach in the Super Bowl and 0-3 overall when one counts the Falcons’ 2016 season loss.
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