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Rich Cimini
One day after losing to the Jacksonville Jaguars, 48-20, the New York Jets have fired defensive coordinator Steve Wilks.
Passing-game coordinator Chris Harris will be the interim coordinator and will have play calling duties.
The Jets allowed 82 points in the last two games, including a 48-20 loss Sunday in Jacksonville in which the defense gave up scores on eight of the first nine series.
The Jaguars’ Trevor Lawrence became the fifth player in the Super Bowl era (since 1966) with five touchdown passes and one rushing touchdown in a game.
The Jets had no answers managing two quarterback hits and no sacks in a game in which Wilks called for blitzes on 10 of Lawrence’s 32 pass attempts. But Lawrence went 7-for-10 for 150 yards and two touchdowns against the blitz, per ESPN Research.
Wilks, 55, was out of the NFL for the 2024 season after serving for one season as the San Francisco 49ers’ defensive coordinator. He was fired in February 2024, a few days after the Niners’ loss to the Kansas City Chiefs in Super Bowl LVIII. Before that, he served as the Detroit Lions’ defensive coordinator from 2021 to 2024, and he had head-coaching experience with the Arizona Cardinals in 2018 and with the Carolina Panthers as interim coach in 2022.
