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Nick Sorensen Explains Brandon Staley's Role in the 49ers Defense

"He sees things holistically," Sorensen said. "He knows how to build plans."

Grant Cohn

May 10, 2024; Santa Clara, CA, USA; San Francisco 49ers defensive coordinator Nick Sorensen holds a
May 10, 2024; Santa Clara, CA, USA; San Francisco 49ers defensive coordinator Nick Sorensen holds a / Robert Kupbens-USA TODAY Sports
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SANTA CLARA -- It must have been awkward for Nick Sorensen when the 49ers hired Brandon Staley to be their assistant head coach.

Sorensen is entering his first season as a defensive coordinator, so technically he's in charge of the 49ers defense. But Staley also is a defensive coach, and he actually has experience -- he was a defensive coordinator AND a head coach. So what will Staley's role be?

"He sees things holistically," Sorensen said. "He knows how to build plans. Just getting him in here and talking football with him, he's very bright. Really a humble guy who's smart and knows football. He has been really awesome and helpful for me."

So what exactly is Staley's role?

"It's more holistic," Sorensen reiterated. "He has been helping me overall. He has been involved with pretty much everything. I've been talking him through how we play certain things. Watching stuff throughout the league and what other teams do, some of the things he did, would they fit? Would they not fit in our defense? Some things I was already familiar with from just watching different defenses. He has been more connected with the DBs and the nickels, but he also has experience with D-ends and outside linebackers. It's going to be really helpful that he has done it before and had success and has been a head coach as well."

TRANSLATION: Staley is running the defense. He's mentoring Sorensen, who knows the 49ers system but doesn't know nearly as much about football in general as Staley does. Staley is holding Sorensen's hand when it comes to picking the players, evolving the scheme and building game plans. Seems like Sorensen's main responsibility will be calling plays and communicating with players. Otherwise, Staley is the architect.

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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.