Former Jets Coach Saleh Back as Niners DC

All in the family.

The San Francisco 49ers have been on a long mission to find a new defensive coordinator after the team fired Nick Sorenson, following the 2024 season. Despite the team going through an exhaustive search, they have now brought back a fan-favorite coach and a familiar face.

Former 49ers defensive coordinator and former New York Jets head coach Robert Saleh is heading back to the Bay Area.
Saleh had been making the rounds to interview for open head coach positions, including interviewing with the Jacksonville Jaguars, Las Vegas Raiders, and Dallas Cowboys. However, he revealed to 49ers head coach Kyle Shanahan he would be willing to reunite with the 49ers if he did not secure a head coaching position.

Saleh was not hired, as the Jaguars hired 39-year-old Liam Coen from the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, the Raiders hired Peter Caroll, and the Cowboys hired Brian Schottenheimer as their new head coach.
Now, Saleh can return to a team and an organization with which he has had immense success. The 49ers’ defense was in the top 10 while Saleh oversaw the unit from 2017 to 2020.

Saleh’s coaching and defensive prowess led to him landing a head coach position with ‘Gang Green’, the New York Jets, where he remained from 2021 to 2024. He was unceremoniously fired on October 8 during Week 6 of the 2024 regular season.

Saleh would go on to be hired by the Green Bay Packers as a consultant, although he made it clear he would want to return to coaching in the 2025 season. The initial thought was he would go for defensive coordinator positions, but he received plenty of interest from teams needing a head coach.

With teams hiring their new head coaches, Saleh is back to run the defensive side of the ball with Shanahan.

At that season-ending press conference, Shanahan said he was hoping to find an experienced candidate for the job, and though he was not opposed to a scheme change, he was more focused on finding someone who could problem-solve in the moment when things were not going well.

“I want someone that kind of meshes with what I believe in, but I also believe that you’ve got to fit to come up with the best thing possible that fits our situation right now,” coach Shanahan said. “So that’ll be talking about our personnel, the roster, a lot of things like that and what their plan would be with it.”

The 49ers went through a major Super Bowl hangover, as the team finished with a 6-11 record after playing in the championship in 2023 against Patrick Mahomes and the Kansas City Chiefs. San Francisco still had a solid defense in 2024, but they still chose to move on from Sorenson.

With a poor season in their rearview mirror, the 49ers can now move forward and look to getting back to the playoffs, and hopefully the Super Bowl. They are getting a second chance with one of the best defensive minds in the entire league.

“He’s a teacher and he’s going to give you his thoughts, but the beauty with him is he’s not afraid to have those heated conversations to try to get across what he’s trying to get across,” Saleh said of Shanahan in March. “But also, the respect to give you the leeway to make the best decisions for what you think needs to get done. He will challenge you. And when he challenges you with conviction, you’ll know it.”

There were plenty of worthy candidates who could have helped turn the 49ers defense back into a top 5 unit, but that can especially be true with Saleh in the fold running things.