49ers Hire Nick Sorensen as Defensive Coordinator and Hire Brandon Staley

Sorensen seems like an ascending coach. Which begs the question, why is Staley here?

Grant Cohn | Mar 2, 2024

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San Francisco 49ers

Finally the 49ers have hired a defensive coordinator, or two.

Nick Sorensen has been promoted from 49ers pass game coordinator to defensive coordinator, according to ESPN's Adam Schefter. In addition, the team has hired former Chargers head coach Brandon Staley, presumably as the assistant coach, although that hasn't been confirmed.

Let's start with Sorensen.

He never has been a defensive coordinator or called plays, but he was a defensive backs for the Seahawks for eight years, which means he has pedigree because he learned under Pete Carroll. Sorensen also was a special teams coordinator for a year in Jacksonville before he came to the 49ers in 2022 as an assistant. In 2023, he was promoted to pass game coordinator and nickels coach, so he was largely responsible for the rapid improvement of Deommodore Lenoir.

Sorensen seems like an ascending coach. Which begs the question, why is Staley here?

Staley is not an ascending coach. He's a failure. A fired head coach. He got run out of Los Angeles midseason because he was so bad with the Chargers despite coaching excellent defensive players such as Derwin James, Khalil Mack and Joey Bosa.

It couldn't hurt to have Staley on the staff, but hiring him doesn't project confidence in Sorensen. If Sorensen were the team's first choice, they could have hired him weeks ago and not hired Staley. Instead, they reportedly reached out to Steve Spagnuolo to gauge his interest, and then announced the Sorensen and Staley news early Saturday morning when people were sleeping.

I'm guessing the players like Sorensen and want him to be the defensive coordinator, and I'm guessing the team is concerned about his readiness and would prefer Brandon Staley. So they compromised. Gave the players what they presumably wanted and hired Staley to look over Sorensen's shoulder.

Which means Sorensen has less power and standing than Steve Wilks had. Sorensen's replacement is on the team right now. If he struggles, the 49ers can replace him with Staley during the season if necessary.

It's fair to wonder if Sorensen will be the 49ers defensive coordinator a year from now or if he'll get fired like Wilks did.

No pressure, Nick.

Published Mar 2, 2024

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.