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49ers to Hire Robert Saleh as DC if He Doesn't Become a Head Coach

It seems the 49ers will land their top choice for defensive coordinator after all.
Grant Cohn|
Dec 8, 2019; New Orleans, LA, USA; San Francisco 49ers defensive coordinator Robert Saleh before their game against the New Orleans Saints at the Mercedes-Benz Superdome. Mandatory Credit: Chuck Cook-Imagn Images
Dec 8, 2019; New Orleans, LA, USA; San Francisco 49ers defensive coordinator Robert Saleh before their game against the New Orleans Saints at the Mercedes-Benz Superdome. Mandatory Credit: Chuck Cook-Imagn Images | Chuck Cook-Imagn Images

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San Francisco 49ers

It seems the 49ers will land their top choice for defensive coordinator after all.

Robert Saleh is expected to return to the 49ers as their defensive coordinator if he doesn't become a head coach according to The Athletic and NBC Sports Bay Area.

Earlier today, Saleh seemed like the favorite to become the Jacksonville Jaguars head coach until they unexpectedly hired former Tampa Bay Buccaneers offensive coordinator Liam Coen to be their head coach this afternoon.

Three head-coaching vacancies remain and Saleh is reported to be in the running for at least two of them -- the Cowboys and the Raiders. So it's not a done deal that Saleh will return to the 49ers as their defensive coordinator. Both the Cowboys are Raiders are reportedly to be strongly considering Pete Carroll, who is a much older version of Saleh. Perhaps the team that misses out on Carroll will want Saleh. We'll see.

Still, if the 49ers finally land Saleh, what a phenomenal move that will be. Saleh is the perfect defensive coordinator for them. He fits their personnel and their scheme and he provides the energy and enthusiasm that Kyle Shanahan can't provide. They complement each other quite well.

If the 49ers somehow don't land Saleh, it seems their fallback option is Brandon Staley, who was an abysmal failure as a head coach. I doubt the players would be excited for Staley to get the job. That's why hiring Saleh is so critical.

For now, it seems like the 49ers have a great shot to get him.

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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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