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49ers' Best Move of Offseason was Hiring Robert Saleh per CBS Sports

The 49ers offseason was defined mostly by the people they lost rather than the people they added.
Grant Cohn|
Jan 12, 2025; Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA; Green Bay Packers offensive consultant Robert Saleh on the sidelines during warmups against the Philadelphia Eagles in an NFC wild card game at Lincoln Financial Field. Mandatory Credit: Eric Hartline-Imagn Images
Jan 12, 2025; Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA; Green Bay Packers offensive consultant Robert Saleh on the sidelines during warmups against the Philadelphia Eagles in an NFC wild card game at Lincoln Financial Field. Mandatory Credit: Eric Hartline-Imagn Images | Eric Hartline-Imagn Images

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San Francisco 49ers

The 49ers offseason was defined mostly by the people they lost rather than the people they added.

After going 6-11 and missing the playoffs for the first time since 2020, the 49ers cleaned house, fired two coordinators and said goodbye to nine starters. And yet, most experts expect the 49ers to bounce back next season because their schedule is soft and they brought back Robert Saleh as their defensive coordinator.

In fact, hiring Saleh was the 49ers' best move of the offseason according to CBS Sports.

"Like the Eagles, the 49ers spent most of the offseason swallowing tough pills related to veteran exits, letting former headliners like Deebo Samuel, Dre Greenlaw and Charvarius Ward head elsewhere," writes CBS Sports' Cody Benjamin.

"Besides locking up Brock Purdy, who might still be underrated as Kyle Shanahan's point guard, their reunion with their old defensive coordinator could be most pivotal. Their 'D' badly needed an identity again."

Saleh is a huge addition not only because he coached the 49ers defense once already. He's more than a retread. He's a top-five defensive coordinator who has improved since his first stint with the 49ers, plus he has head-coach experience now.

Most importantly, he replaces Nick Sorensen, who might have been the worst defensive coordinator in the league. He isn't even a defensive coordinator anymore -- he now coaches special teams for the Dallas Cowboys.

Last season, the 49ers gave up the fourth-most points in the NFL. Expect their defense to be much improved under Saleh.

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Grant Cohn
GRANT COHN

Grant Cohn has covered the San Francisco 49ers daily since 2011. He spent the first nine years of his career with the Santa Rosa Press Democrat where he wrote the Inside the 49ers blog and covered famous coaches and athletes such as Jim Harbaugh, Colin Kaepernick and Patrick Willis. In 2012, Inside the 49ers won Sports Blog of the Year from the Peninsula Press Club. In 2020, Cohn joined FanNation and began writing All49ers. In addition, he created a YouTube channel which has become the go-to place on YouTube to consume 49ers content. Cohn's channel typically generates roughly 3.5 million viewers per month, while the 49ers' official YouTube channel generates roughly 1.5 million viewers per month. Cohn live streams almost every day and posts videos hourly during the football season. Cohn is committed to asking the questions that 49ers fans want answered, and providing the most honest and interactive coverage in the country. His loyalty is to the reader and the viewer, not the team or any player or coach. Cohn is a new-age multimedia journalist with an old-school mentality, because his father is Lowell Cohn, the legendary sports columnist for the San Francisco Chronicle from 1979 to 1993. The two have a live podcast every Tuesday. Grant Cohn grew up in Oakland and studied English Literature at UCLA from 2006 to 2010. He currently lives in Oakland with his wife.

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