Have the 49ers Regained Their Defensive Identity?

It's almost hard to fathom how the 49ers are on their fourth defensive coordinator of the past four years.

Jun 11, 2025; Santa Clara, CA, USA; San Francisco 49ers defensive coordinator Robert Saleh speaks to the media following a team OTA at Levi's Stadium. Mandatory Credit: D. Ross Cameron-Imagn Images | D. Ross Cameron-Imagn Images

It's almost hard to fathom how the 49ers are on their fourth defensive coordinator of the past four years.

For the first six years of Kyle Shanahan's tenure as the 49ers head coach, his teams were defined by their dominant defenses under Robert Saleh and DeMeco Ryans. But since those two left, the 49ers have desperately and unsuccessfully tried to reverse engineer what Saleh and Ryans created.

Now Saleh is back, and so is the 49ers' defensive identity according to CBS Sports.

"The defense has an identity again," writes CBS Sports' Cody Benjamin. "The big story of the 49ers' offseason may have been Brock Purdy finally cashing in as the face of Kyle Shanahan's offense, which may be headlined out wide by the emergent Ricky Pearsall due to injuries and cost-cutting moves elsewhere. Yet Robert Saleh's return as defensive coordinator has already brought a renewed sense of 'violence' on that side of the ball, even with heavy hitters like Dre Greenlaw no longer on the roster."

Benjamin is writing this because George Kittle recently went on a press tour and said that Saleh will bring back violence to the defense. The players haven't actually put on pads yet, so they haven't had the opportunity to be violent. But Saleh preaches "extreme violence," which is what Kittle was talking about.

As far as the identity is concerned, the 49ers still have to establish that during real games. That's because they'll have lots of rookies and new players starting on defense this season. They won't have an identity until they actually play together for a while.