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Gus Bradley Officially Joins the 49ers Defensive Coaching Staff

The 49ers coaching staff just got stronger.

Grant Cohn

Sep 24, 2023; Baltimore, Maryland, USA; Indianapolis Colts coach Gus Bradley during the game against the Baltimore Ravens at M&T Bank Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Tommy Gilligan-Imagn Images
Sep 24, 2023; Baltimore, Maryland, USA; Indianapolis Colts coach Gus Bradley during the game against the Baltimore Ravens at M&T Bank Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Tommy Gilligan-Imagn Images / Tommy Gilligan-Imagn Images
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The 49ers coaching staff just got stronger.

First, they hired Robert Saleh to be their defensive coordinator. Now, Saleh has brought Gus Bradley with him according to The NFL Network's Tom Pelissero. It's unclear as of now what Bradley's position will be, but there's a chance that he will replace Brandon Staley as the 49ers assistant head coach.

Bradley has been either a defensive coordinator or a head coach every season since 2009. He was Pete Carroll's first defensive coordinator on the Seahawks, where Saleh was a defensive quality control coach. In 2013, Bradley became the head coach of the Jaguars and took Saleh with him as the linebackers coach. Then in 2017, the 49ers hired Saleh to be their defensive coordinator, and now he's back in a second stint after coaching the Jets for three years.

Bradley is coming off a three-year stint that didn't go so well as the defensive coordinator of the Indianapolis Colts. He just got fired last month. So Saleh is helping his friend get back on his feet.

Like Saleh, Bradley is an extremely enthusiastic head coach who will bring the energy the 49ers' sideline lacked this season. And he's another voice who will echo Saleh's message to the players.

Last year, the top two voices on the 49ers' defensive coaching staff were Nick Sorensen and Brandon Staley -- two guys who barely knew each other before the year started. Saleh and Bradley have known each other for nearly 15 years. They work quite well together.

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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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