San Francisco 49ers tap Nick Sorensen as defensive coordinator

After the disastrous defensive performance in overtime of Super Bowl LVIII, the San Francisco 49ers fired Steve Wilks and the defensive coordinator position became vacant ahead of the 2024 NFL season.

However, the NFC West franchise has already found its successor. Based on the report from NFL Network, the Niners decided to promote Nick Sorensen from passing game coach and nickel cornerbacks coach to defensive coordinator.

Nick Sorensen, experience and expertise in the NFL

The internal movement makes sense if we want to continue the work of the last year. During 2023, the Niners had the third-best rushing defense in yards allowed with 1,525 and were tied for fifth in turnovers generated.

Sorensen spent 10 years as a player in the NFL split between the St Louis Rams (2001-02), Jacksonville Jaguars (2003-06) and Cleveland Browns (2007-10). He became a coach in 2012 with Youngstown State University and a year later joined the NFL as a special teams assistant for the Seattle Seahawks, where he performed a number of different roles including assistant special teams coach and assistant defensive backs coach.

He was with them until 2020 and his position changed to defensive secondary coach between 2017 and 2019 to finish his management under Pete Carroll as a nickelbacks specialist. In 2021 he confirmed his evolution as a strategist and became the special teams coordinator for the Jacksonville Jaguars and later arrived in San Francisco as a defensive assistant a season later.