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Is Dennis Allen a Good Fit to be the 49ers' Defensive Coordinator?

Allen is an excellent defensive coordinator who simply isn't cut out to be a head coach.

Grant Cohn

Oct 17, 2024; New Orleans, Louisiana, USA; New Orleans Saints head coach Dennis Allen reacts against the Denver Broncos during the second quarter at Caesars Superdome. Mandatory Credit: Matthew Hinton-Imagn Images
Oct 17, 2024; New Orleans, Louisiana, USA; New Orleans Saints head coach Dennis Allen reacts against the Denver Broncos during the second quarter at Caesars Superdome. Mandatory Credit: Matthew Hinton-Imagn Images / Matthew Hinton-Imagn Images
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Robert Saleh almost certainly is the 49ers' first choice to fill their defensive coordinator vacancy. That's obvious.

He was their defensive coordinator a few years ago and he was excellent. But he's also drawing interest from the Cowboys, the Jaguars and the Raiders for their head-coaching vacancies, which means the 49ers might not get Saleh.

If he's not available, the next best option could be former New Orleans Saints head coach Dennis Allen.

Allen is an excellent defensive coordinator who simply isn't cut out to be a head coach. He has been fired as a head coach twice now and won't get a third opportunity. He will be a coordinator for the rest of his career. He simply isn't a leader of men.

But he does run a 4-3 defense, so he would theoretically fit the 49ers defensive scheme. He probably could work with their wide 9 defensive front. He also would want to call much more man-to-man coverage than the 49ers have called under Kyle Shanahan, but more man coverage would be good for their defense.

From a pure schematic perspective, Allen could be seen as a terrific fit for the 49ers.

But is his personality a good fit with head coach Kyle Shanahan? Both Shanahan and Allen are low-energy play-callers who lack the ability to infuse their players with emotion and enthusiasm. In the past, Shanahan relied on Robert Saleh, DeMeco Ryans and Steve Wilks to fill this emotional role. This season, Nick Sorensen had no energy and neither did the 49ers defense.

Allen can't fill the emotional void on this team.

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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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