Steve Wilks Sizes Up the Chiefs Offense

SANTA CLARA -- The 49ers have to find a way to slow down a Chiefs offense that scored 44 points against them just last season.

Here's what defensive coordinator Steve Wilks said Friday about Kansas City, courtesy of the 49ers P.R. department.

Q: How big of a challenge does Kansas City Chiefs QB Patrick Mahomes offer you guys?

WILKS: “Well, it is definitely a challenge. Not only him, you look at [Kansas City Chiefs TE Travis] Kelce, you talk about two First-Ballot Hall of Famers there. We definitely have to prepare and be ready. It's different things that we have to do. Number one, he's doing a tremendous job, really extended plays. We talked all week. It's two plays within one down. When the ball snaps and then once he starts to scramble. So he's phenomenal. The best I've ever seen for just buying time, winning with his feet and getting the ball where it needs to go down the field.”

Q: There’s a lot of improvisation between those two, Mahomes and Kelce. When two players have that, what can you do on defense? It seems like any sort of set plan can be foiled by adlibbing?

WILKS: “They do adlib and that they do a great job of it. But we still have to have a great plan. We’ve still got to execute and finish. When they start to adlib we’ve got to do a great job of really plastering the man within our zone and really straining to make sure we finish the rep.”

Q: What's unique about their relationship that they know exactly where the other one is going on the field? Have you seen a relationship between a quarterback and a tight end like that?

WILKS: “With anything, it's time. You build a strong relationship over time and they seem to be in sync with one another in regards to Mahomes could be going to his right and Kelce really is going to his right as well, and he's throwing the opposite way. They're always on point with one another. So that's the point that we’re trying to emphasize in practice is that the down is never over. You’ve got to be ready to extend it down once Mahomes starts scrambling.”

Q: With the screen game and short passes the Chiefs like to run, what makes them so successful with that and how do you kind of counteract that?

WILKS: “Well, one is just getting the ball out quickly and into their playmaker’s hands. Once again, just trying to get things on the perimeter with Kelce and, then having those lead blockers. So we’ve got to do a great job setting the edges as we talked about all year on the perimeter. Whether it's the toss sweep, jet sweep or the actual screen game itself. So that's something that we've been emphasizing.”

Q: How does Kansas City Chiefs head coach Andy Reid use motion and things like that differently maybe than other coaches and how big of a challenge is that?

WILKS: “I don't want to say what he used differently. I think all offensive coaches try to create different dynamics with the motion. It could be trying to get a receiver off press. It could be really trying to if you're a big-man team, trying to disrupt your timing, as far as who you have within the bunch or stack formations. They do a lot of that. We have to do a great job with our communication, making sure that we're on the same page.”

ME: What do you think of Kansas City’s run game? It seems like it's become more of a featured part of their attack.

WILKS: “[Kansas City Chiefs RB Isaac] Pacheco, I think he's phenomenal. The guy runs hard between the tackles, outside. We talked all week, we’ve got a gang tackle this guy. He's not going to go down on first contact. A lot of respect for him, just watching him over the years or last year. Then also just seeing what he's done this year is just he's phenomenal.”

ME: What’s challenging about stopping a run against a team that uses two and three tight end formations?

WILKS: “When you're talking about challenging, I think rather one tight end, two tight ends, it's challenging as a whole just because of what we just talked about with the running back. They create different dynamics when they come to 13. And to be quite honest, what you just mentioned, sometimes it's not really the case they get in that 13, all of a sudden they spread you out and it looks like 11. So you may try to bring in an extra lineman, all of a sudden now you're really defending 11 personnel. So we’ve got to really get a feel for what they're doing throughout the course of the game and continue to try to stay on schedule.”

Q: How many films do you want to watch in a game of this magnitude because Mahomes threw 14 picks this year, but he hasn't thrown one in like four or five games. Is there anything that you've seen that he's changed from early in the year to late in the year?

WILKS: “I think you take your time to really dig through a lot of stuff. We watch a lot of tape as coaches together and separate. Going back to previous Super Bowls, to whether it's Tampa, it's us, previous years. This system hasn't changed. Their system hasn't changed. So you try to figure out things that may have hurt you in the past and feeling like they may try to exploit that. So, you watch a lot of tape.”