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The 49ers Interview Jett Modkins to be their Special Teams Coordinator

It seems the 49ers are learning from their mistakes.
Grant Cohn|
Detroit assistance special teams coach Jett Modkins signals players before a play against Los Angeles Rams during the second half at Ford Field in Detroit on Sunday, September 8, 2024.
Detroit assistance special teams coach Jett Modkins signals players before a play against Los Angeles Rams during the second half at Ford Field in Detroit on Sunday, September 8, 2024. | Junfu Han / USA TODAY NETWORK

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San Francisco 49ers

The 49ers could hire a new special teams coordinator soon.

Recently, they fired Brian Schneider. Today, they just announced that they've completed an interview with Detroit Lions assistant special teams coordinator Jett Modkins. Modkins is the son of Curtis Modkins, the current run game coordinator for the Minnesota Vikings who also was the 49ers' offensive coordinator in 2016 under head coach Chip Kelly. Which means the 49ers should be familiar with Jett.

It makes sense that the 49ers would interview a coach from the Lions considering their staff is so good. Even if they don't hire Modkins, they can learn about how the Lions do things.

Unless Modkins absolutely dazzles in his interview, I doubt he'll get the job. He might be the most qualified candidate, but Kyle Shanahan said a few days ago at his end-of-season press conference that he would like former 49ers defensive coordinator Nick Sorensen to be the special teams coordinator if he'll take the job. The 49ers dismissed Sorensen as the defensive coordinator just a few days ago and they want to keep him on the staff.

But the 49ers have to do a formal round of interviews before they name Sorensen the special teams coordinator -- they can't just give the job to their friend because they like him. That would be against the NFL's rules. And the 49ers just violated these rules when they attempted to promote Klay Kubiak from pass game coordinator to offensive coordinator without conducting formal interviews.

It seems the 49ers are learning from their mistakes.

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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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