Dan Quinn added a veteran defensive voice to his building in Washington, and he did it a few weeks before anyone outside of Ashburn knew about it.
The Commanders have hired Steve Wilks to work with the defensive staff under Quinn and first-year defensive coordinator Daronte Jones, according to NFL Network's Mike Garafolo and Ian Rapoport.
The decision to bring Wilks aboard was made last month, and he actually started last week, the report adds
Wilks will help with game planning during the week, and in a unique arrangement, he won't be with the team on game days.
He joins a club sitting at 1-4-1 after a 23-17 Monday night loss to the 49ers, a game in which Washington climbed out of a big first-half hole before coming up short late. Pro Football Network's Week 7 power rankings slot the Commanders' defense near the bottom of the league, ranked 26th.
Jones is in his first season running the defense after Washington fired Joe Whitt Jr. following a 5-12 finish in 2025. The Commanders hired Jones on January 30 from Minnesota, where he coached the secondary in 2020 and again from 2022 through 2025, adding defensive pass game coordinator duties in 2023. The 2024 Vikings defense led the NFL with 24 interceptions. Jones also spent 2021 as LSU's defensive coordinator and has NFL stops with the Bengals and Dolphins.
The Jets fired Wilks as defensive coordinator on December 15, 2025, a day after a 48-20 loss at Jacksonville in which the Jaguars scored on eight of their first nine possessions. New York was 3-11 at the time, allowing 28.4 points per game, third-most in the league. The Jets also went 646 pass attempts with an interception, which stands as an NFL record. Aaron Glenn said simply that "the improvement wasn't there."
Before New York, Wilks was the 49ers' defensive coordinator in 2023, a season that ended in Super Bowl LVIII, and he was let go in February 2024. He went 6-6 as Carolina's interim head coach after taking over in October 2022, and he was passed over for the full-time job in favor of Frank Reich. He was the Cardinals' head coach in 2018, going 3-13, and has coordinated defenses for the Browns (2019) and was briefly at Missouri (2021).
His longest run came in Carolina from 2012 through 2017, where he went from secondary coach to assistant head coach to defensive coordinator, including a spot on the 2015 staff that reached Super Bowl 50. Earlier NFL stops include the Bears (2006-2008) and Chargers (2009-2011).
He spent 2024 as a volunteer advisor at Charlotte, and on April 30 of this year, his alma mater Appalachian State hired him as a special assistant to athletics, working on fundraising, capital projects and special events. Wilks played defensive back for the Mountaineers from 1987 to 1991.
The structure of the arrangement is unique. A Monday through Saturday role gets Washington an experienced coordinator's eyes on opponent tendencies and the weekly plan without adding another voice on the headset Sunday. Jones keeps the call sheet, and Quinn, a former defensive coordinator himself, gets one more trusted sounding board in the room with no shortage of NFL experience.
College staffs have leaned on analysts for years, and plenty of high school programs have a retired coach who breaks down film during the week and watches from the stands on Friday night. It's less common to see it at the NFL level, especially a former head coach.
With 11 games left, Washington is betting a few extra hours of Wilks in the meeting room can help a defense that hasn't yet found its footing.
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