There is nothing especially normal about adding a coach for the week but not the weekend. Yet that is the lane Steve Wilks has stepped into with the Washington Commanders, a move that says as much about the state of the defense as it does about his reputation. Washington did not bring him in to change the headsets on game day. It brought him in to help shape the plan before the game ever arrives.
Wilks started with the Commanders last week, working with Dan Quinn and Daronte Jones on the defensive staff in a weekly preparation role. It is an uncommon setup, and that is exactly why it is interesting. In a league where coaching hierarchies tend to be rigid, Washington has chosen a more flexible model for a defense that needs help quickly.
The urgency is obvious from the start. Washington is 1-4-1, and the defense entered Week 7 ranked 26th by Pro Football Network. That is not the profile of a unit that can afford to keep waiting for natural improvement. It was still one of the more revealing numbers around the team after Monday night’s 23-17 loss to the 49ers, because it pointed to a larger truth: the Commanders are not just looking for better results, they are looking for better structure.
Why Wilks matters
Wilks brings a long defensive résumé to the job. He played defensive back for Appalachian State from 1987 to 1991, then worked NFL stops with the Bears from 2006 to 2008 and the Chargers from 2009 to 2011. He then spent 2012 to 2017 in Carolina, rising from secondary coach to assistant head coach to defensive coordinator. In 2015, he was on the Carolina staff that reached Super Bowl 50.
Since then, the path has been uneven but still instructive. Wilks was the Cardinals' head coach in 2018 and went 3-13. He coordinated defenses for the Browns in 2019, had a brief stop at Missouri in 2021, and took over as Carolina's interim head coach in October 2022. In 2023, he was the 49ers' defensive coordinator, and after being let go by the 49ers in February 2024, he spent last year as a volunteer advisor at Charlotte. Appalachian State then hired him as a special assistant to athletics on April 30 of this year.
That background matters because Washington is not asking Wilks to learn defense from scratch. It is asking him to help sharpen the details. A coach with his history can bring perspective on opponent tendencies, situational planning and the small adjustments that often decide whether a unit looks organized or merely active.
An unusual role for an unusual moment
The most notable part of the arrangement is what Wilks will not do. He will work with the staff during the week, but he will not be on the sidelines on game days. In other words, Washington is borrowing his experience without changing the on-field coaching structure once the ball is kicked off. That is unusual, but it also fits a team that seems to be searching for answers wherever they can be found.
There is a practical logic to that. If the Commanders believe the defense needs a better weekly process, then adding another experienced voice to the planning room can help without forcing a public reset. It also lets Quinn and Jones keep the game-day responsibilities in place while still expanding the defensive brain trust behind them.
The problem, of course, is that process alone does not fix production. Washington’s 1-4-1 start has already created enough pressure, and the 26th-ranked defense suggests this is not a one-week correction. Wilks can help shape the plan, but the Commanders still have to execute it better. That is the line between a staffing move and a real turnaround.
Still, the hire says something important about where Washington is right now. The team is treating defense as a priority, and it is willing to use an unconventional structure to get more out of the week. If the results improve, this will look like a smart way to add experience without disrupting roles. If they do not, it will simply be another reminder that the Commanders were trying to solve a deeper problem with a creative fix.
For now, though, the message is clear: Steve Wilks is in, the work begins in the meeting room, and Washington is hoping that a different kind of staffing choice can lead to a different kind of defense.
