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The 49ers just had One of the Best Offseasons in the NFL per ESPN

Robert Saleh essentially was the 49ers' one major addition this offseason.
Grant Cohn|
May 9, 2025; Santa Clara, CA, USA; San Francisco 49ers head coach Kyle Shanahan, right, confers with defensive coordinator Robert Saleh during the teamís rookie minicamp. Mandatory Credit: D. Ross Cameron-Imagn Images
May 9, 2025; Santa Clara, CA, USA; San Francisco 49ers head coach Kyle Shanahan, right, confers with defensive coordinator Robert Saleh during the teamís rookie minicamp. Mandatory Credit: D. Ross Cameron-Imagn Images | D. Ross Cameron-Imagn Images

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San Francisco 49ers

When the first wave of free agency ended a few months ago, most analysts thought the 49ers had one of the worst offseasons in the NFL.

That's because they lost nine starting players and signed no one to replace them. At least initially. In June, they traded for failed Eagles edge rusher Bryce Huff. They also re-hired Robert Saleh, who coached Huff during his one productive season on the Jets.

Now that the dust has settled on the offseason, analysts are warming up to the moves the 49ers have made. In fact, ESPN just gave them an a-minus for the offseason as a whole.

"After a disappointing 6-11 campaign, the 49ers opened their offseason by bringing back Robert Saleh, their defensive coordinator from 2017 to 2020," writes ESPN's Seth Walder. "Though his head coaching tenure with the Jets was shaky, his defenses ranked in the top five in expected points added per play in 2022, 2023 and the first five weeks of 2024, before he was fired. After the firing, the Jets' defense plummeted to 30th in EPA per play."

Saleh essentially was the 49ers' one major addition this offseason. They also took a flyer on Huff and added a bunch of cheap veterans and rookies. Is that enough?

Walder clearly expects Saleh to immediately turn around a defense that finished 26th in EPA per play last season. But in Saleh's first year coaching the Jets, his defense ranked dead last in EPA per play. It didn't become a dominant unit until his second season in New York. I think it's unreasonable to expect Saleh to work instant magic with a defense that could start up to five rookies. Call me crazy.

The 49ers really didn't do much this offseason, and they have more than $45 million in cap space. Meanwhile, the Rams and the Cardinals were extremely aggressive.

I'd give the 49ers offseason a C.

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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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