Washington brings in Steve Wilks to help fix a defense that's ranked 26th in the league
With Dan Quinn's job intact but his seat still warm, the Commanders used their bye week to quietly add a veteran defensive mind to the coaching room. Steve Wilks started working in Ashburn last week.
In brief
Washington brings in Steve Wilks to help fix a defense that's ranked 26th in the league
The Washington Commanders are 1-4-1, last in the NFC East, and currently sitting on a bye week with more questions than answers. Dan Quinn still has his job. And as of Tuesday, he has a new face in his defensive meeting room: Steve Wilks, the former Arizona Cardinals head coach and longtime NFL defensive coordinator, hired on a part-time basis to help with game planning.
Fox Sports and Yahoo Sports both confirmed the move Wednesday, October 21, citing an AP source. The Commanders hired Wilks as a part-time assistant defensive coach. Wilks comes in on Sundays and leaves after practice on Wednesdays to help with defensive game-planning, and the hiring had been in the works since before the start of the season, though he didn't officially start until last week.
So no, this is not a panic move. But the timing is still telling.
The Commanders are 1-4-1 headed into their bye week, and they rank 26th in the NFL in yards-per-game allowed. First-year defensive coordinator Daronte Jones has run a blitz-and-disguise-heavy scheme that has produced inconsistent results, and after six weeks the defense is one of the clearest reasons the offense's occasional brilliance hasn't translated to wins.
Wilks' role is to help install game plans alongside Quinn and Jones, joining them on Sunday nights and departing after Wednesday's weekly practice. He does not have a game-day role with the team and is not with the team on game days. It is an unusual setup. But unusual fits a team trying to thread a needle between supporting a coaching staff and acknowledging that something needs to change.
Who is Wilks, and why does he matter?
Wilks got his start with Washington in 2005, and has spent time with the Chicago Bears, San Diego Chargers and Carolina Panthers before the Cardinals hired him as their head coach ahead of the 2018 campaign. That stint in Arizona ended after one year and a 3-13 record. Since then, he has rebuilt credibility through coordinator work: he was the Jets' defensive coordinator in 2025 and held the same role with the San Francisco 49ers in 2023 and the Cleveland Browns in 2019.
Before New York, Wilks was the 49ers' defensive coordinator in 2023, a season that ended in Super Bowl LVIII. The Jets fired him as defensive coordinator on December 15, 2025, a day after a 48-20 loss at Jacksonville. He briefly joined the Appalachian State staff before the Commanders called.
The job marks his first in the league since the Jets let him go, and while the Commanders are bringing in an extra resource, the move is not seen as an indictment on Jones or something done in response to the team's struggles in recent weeks.
Multiple sources made that point emphatically. The move was not related to any recent performance by Washington's defense, with one source noting that Quinn and Jones had been working on the plan since the beginning of the season.
Quinn's seat: warm, but not on fire yet
The Wilks hire landed in the same 48-hour window as a broader update on Quinn's job security. Commanders fans thought there was a chance Quinn would be fired after Monday's loss to the 49ers, but NFL Network's Ian Rapoport said a coaching change won't be made just yet.
Washington fell behind San Francisco 20-3 midway through the third quarter, and, heading into the bye week, with owner Josh Harris sitting in the visiting executive suite, it looked like the team might have wanted to leave Dan Quinn in San Francisco after the game. Instead, the Commanders rallied to make it 23-17 before falling short. That second-half fight, sources told NFL Network, made a difference.
Quinn "bought more time to turn the season around thanks to his team's play in San Francisco," Rapoport said on NFL Network's The Insiders, adding, "But some wins do have to come."
If Monday night's game showed anything, it's that Quinn hasn't lost the locker room, and his players are still going to bat for him, which goes a long way when discussing whether to fire a coach midseason, especially since owner Josh Harris isn't fond of making midseason coaching changes unless absolutely necessary.
The record still reads 1-4-1. The Commanders are 6-15-1 under Quinn since the start of the 2025 season. That number does not move, regardless of who is drawing up schemes on Sunday nights in Ashburn.
What comes next
The Eagles visit after the bye, followed by the Rams and a trip to the Giants, and those three games will decide how much of the extra time Rapoport described Quinn actually gets. Washington lost its most dangerous receiver in the process: Terry McLaurin is out for the rest of the season with a torn patellar tendon, an injury he sustained during the Monday night loss to the 49ers.
The defense, at least, now has Wilks in the room four days a week. Jones has had some ups and downs as a rookie NFL play caller, and whether a veteran set of eyes changes the trajectory of a unit that has burned the Commanders all season remains to be seen. Wilks will not be on the sideline when it matters. He will be gone before kickoff.
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CAN I KICK IT? screens New Jack City at the Sylvan Theater, Washington Monument, on Aug. 22. (Courtesy SHAOLIN JAZZ)
The live-cinema series CAN I KICK IT? returns to the National Mall this month with what its producers are calling the "Gangsters on the Mall" chapter of their free outdoor summer run. On Saturday, August 22, the SHAOLIN JAZZ production brings the 1991 crime classic New Jack City to the Sylvan Theater at the Washington Monument for a night of film, music, and community under the DC summer sky.
What sets the event apart is the sound. As the film plays, DJ 2-Tone Jones builds an original score in real time, reimagining one of the most iconic crime movies of the ’90s through hip-hop, soul, funk, and more. It is less a movie screening than a live performance built around the film.
The details:
Film: New Jack City (1991), with a live soundtrack by DJ 2-Tone Jones
When: Saturday, August 22 — seating opens at 7:30 p.m. (bring lawn chairs and blankets); film begins at 8:30 p.m.
Where: Sylvan Theater at the Washington Monument, Independence Ave SW & 15th St NW
A parking note from the organizers: expect road closures and restricted parking east of 14th Street NW due to a separate race event in the District. Roads west of 14th Street NW will be accessible and available for parking.
New Jack City is the second of three screenings in this year’s free CAN I KICK IT? outdoor series, which opened with Black Panther at Skyland Town Center and concludes with Scarface at the Lincoln Memorial on September 5. Produced by the Washington, DC-based multimedia arts company SHAOLIN JAZZ, the series has presented more than 150 live cinematic experiences at venues across the country, from Lincoln Center to SXSW.
"I wanted to be able to tell good stories with substance and remove the ‘ego’ out of the art," said Andrew Huang during a recent interview. Now, he’s building his career at the intersection of discipline, creativity and innovation.
Andrew Huang, founder of New Place Studios. (Courtesy photo)
As a Chinese American, Huang was reared with a deep respect for hard work, consistency and excellence. He describes his childhood as "not so affluent" and later attended college to hone his passion for videography. "In college I tried to do something I loved, which was video, but along the way I knew that I had to find a job. And so I thought, ‘what was the low hanging fruit to get to that stable 9 to 5 job?,’" he stated.
Later in life, Huang found himself working for corporations where his creativity was often limited, eventually leading to burnout. "I worked in a corporation for a long time and there were a lot of missing pieces. I wanted to fill in gaps missing in corporate video production," said Huang.
He later described how his upbringing and a mindset of "survival" led him toward a corporate career. However, his desire for balance and authentic storytelling ultimately pushed him to take the entrepreneurial leap.
"I founded a new place where you can create video and film with ‘substance and style,’" said Huang. His desire for work-life balance and passion for storytelling naturally evolved into a small business based in Virginia. With the launch of New Place Studios, the entrepreneur quickly found himself reconnecting with the values that would become the foundation of everything he creates behind the camera.
Huang said being a business owner has allowed him to first embrace himself. While others may see video as simply capturing moments, he sees it as a way to preserve stories that inspire, connect and leave a lasting imprint.
By combining cinematic visuals with cutting-edge production techniques and a keen understanding of branding, Huang helps organizations and individuals communicate their vision with purpose. He said understanding a client’s "why" serves as the compass for delivering the services they need.
One benefit of working with a small business, he said, is that clients get to see the production process unfold through a micro lens while working with the same faces throughout the entire project. "The work feels personal," said Huang.
Huang does not regret leaving behind the flash-over-substance mentality and corporate hustle culture. That does not mean the Asian American entrepreneur has been without challenges in the industry. "It’s relatively hard to find other Asian American creatives or people who would want to work with me in the DMV," said Huang.
He identifies the industry culture in which everyone is trying to blend in, creatives may fear displaying their Asian identity and some feel pressure to adopt an American corporate persona. He also points to what he describes as a level of gatekeeping within the industry. According to the U.S. Small Business Administration’s 2024 statistics, Asian American and Pacific Islander entrepreneurs own more than 3 million businesses and employ 5.2 million people in the United States.
After tapping into organizations such as SCORE, which offers free small business mentorship, New Place Studios has become a trusted creative partner throughout the DMV (Washington, D.C., Maryland and Virginia). The company produces a range of creative services, including commercials, corporate branding, documentaries, film, 2D animation, motion graphics and photography.
For Huang, entrepreneurship has become more than a departure from corporate life. It has given him the freedom to create with intention, build meaningful connections and tell stories that go beyond the surface.
The 2026 CAN I KICK IT? outdoor series. Poster courtesy of SHAOLIN JAZZ.
For three Saturdays this summer, some of Washington’s most familiar public spaces will do something they rarely do after dark: fill up with blankets, lawn chairs, and the sound of a movie being scored live, in real time. CAN I KICK IT?, the traveling “live cinema” series produced by the DC-based multimedia arts company SHAOLIN JAZZ, is bringing a free outdoor run to the city — pairing three era-defining films with an original soundtrack performed on the spot by DJ 2-Tone Jones.
The premise is what sets it apart from a normal screening in the park. Rather than simply pressing play, 2-Tone Jones builds a score as the film unfolds, pulling from hip-hop, soul, funk, jazz, rock, electronic music, and sounds from around the world. The result, the organizers say, is less a movie night than a one-time performance — the same film you know, wired to a soundtrack you have never heard and will not hear again. Guest DJs warm up the crowd starting at 7:30 PM before each 8:30 PM screening.
The 2026 outdoor schedule
All three events are free and open to the public.
Saturday, August 8 — Black Panther at Skyland Town Center. A pop-up marketplace and community activities kick off the evening; guest DJs at 7:30 PM, film at 8:30 PM. Marvel’s superhero epic gets a one-night-only live score in Southeast DC.
Saturday, August 22 — New Jack City at the Sylvan Theater, Washington Monument. Seating begins at 7:30 PM; the film starts at 8:30 PM. The 1991 crime drama plays out at the foot of one of the country’s most recognizable landmarks.
Saturday, September 5 — Scarface at the Lincoln Memorial. Seating at 7:30 PM; film at 8:30 PM. The series closes with Brian De Palma’s crime saga against the backdrop of the Memorial, scored live from start to finish.
First up: Black Panther at Skyland Town Center on August 8. Poster courtesy of SHAOLIN JAZZ.
A DC company with a national footprint
SHAOLIN JAZZ describes itself as a Washington-based arts company working at the intersection of music, film, art, and culture, and CAN I KICK IT? is its signature production. According to the organizers, the series has staged more than 150 live cinematic experiences around the country — at performing arts centers, museums, festivals, and cultural institutions including Lincoln Center in New York, SXSW, the Denver Center for the Performing Arts, Republic Square in Austin, the Tacoma Armory, and The Cary Theater.
“CAN I KICK IT? has always been about creating a shared experience,” said Gerald Watson, co-founder of SHAOLIN JAZZ. “When you combine iconic films with live music in public spaces, something special happens. People aren’t just watching a movie — they’re experiencing it together. That’s what makes these nights so memorable.”
Cinema as a community event
The DC run lands as cities across the country look for new ways to activate public space through arts and culture — and this series is a straightforward pitch for how to do it: take a landmark everyone already knows, add a film everyone has an opinion about, and let a live soundtrack turn the evening into something neighbors experience shoulder to shoulder. Families, film buffs, and music fans are all invited, and admission won’t cost a thing.
The CAN I KICK IT? outdoor series runs August 8, August 22, and September 5. All events are free; check SHAOLIN JAZZ (shaolinjazz.com) for the latest details and any weather updates before heading out.
