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The 49ers Miss Out on Defensive Coordinator Jeff Ulbrich

The 49ers just missed out on a quality defensive coordinator candidate.
Grant Cohn|
New York Jets interim head coach Jeff Ulbrich looks on before an NFL football matchup Sunday, Dec. 15, 2024 at EverBank Stadium in Jacksonville, Fla. [Corey Perrine/Florida Times-Union]
New York Jets interim head coach Jeff Ulbrich looks on before an NFL football matchup Sunday, Dec. 15, 2024 at EverBank Stadium in Jacksonville, Fla. [Corey Perrine/Florida Times-Union] | Corey Perrine/Florida Times-Union / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

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San Francisco 49ers

The 49ers just missed out on a quality defensive coordinator candidate.

Jeff Ulbrich has agreed to become the Atlanta Falcons' next defensive coordinator according to The NFL Network's Tom Pelissero. Ulbrich was thought to be one of the 49ers' fallback plans if they don't land Robert Saleh who currently is waiting to see if he can become a head coach with the Raiders or the Jaguars or the Cowboys.

While the 49ers wait for Saleh, good defensive coordinators will get hired around the league. Ulbrich is just the first one. Dennis Allen is expected to replace Aaron Glenn in Detroit if he becomes a head coach, which is likely.

Which leaves the 49ers with Saleh, who's outstanding. But if they don't get him, they could be forced to promote Brandon Staley to defensive coordinator, and that would be a nightmare. Staley's defenses were terrible when he was the head coach of the Chargers. Plus, he was on the staff this season with Nick Sorensen who just got fired. If Staley couldn't help Sorensen turn around the defense, why would Staley be able to lead it himself?

Realistically, the best option if they can't land Saleh is Steve Wilks, who's a good coach. But the 49ers burned their bridge with him by scapegoating him for their latest Super Bowl loss. They can't undo that, which is too bad, because he's better than anyone the 49ers can hire other than Saleh.

Let's see if the 49ers know what they're doing.

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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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