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What the Raiders Hiring Pete Carroll Means for the 49ers and Robert Saleh

Good news for the 49ers.
Grant Cohn|
Dec 18, 2023; Seattle, Washington, USA; Seattle Seahawks head coach Pete Carroll stands on the sideline during the third quarter against the Philadelphia Eagles at Lumen Field. Mandatory Credit: Joe Nicholson-Imagn Images
Dec 18, 2023; Seattle, Washington, USA; Seattle Seahawks head coach Pete Carroll stands on the sideline during the third quarter against the Philadelphia Eagles at Lumen Field. Mandatory Credit: Joe Nicholson-Imagn Images | Joe Nicholson-Imagn Images

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San Francisco 49ers

Good news for the 49ers.

The Las Vegas Raiders just hired Pete Carroll to be their head coach. He signed a three-year deal with a team option for a fourth year according to ESPN's Adam Schefter. Which means Robert Saleh will not be the Raiders head coach. So it's becoming increasingly likely that he will take the 49ers' defensive coordinator job.

It was reported last night by NBC Sports Bay Area and The Athletic that Saleh has informed the 49ers that he will become their defensive coordinator if he doesn't land a head coaching job. Now, there are just two head coach vacancies left -- the Cowboys and the Saints. And of those two, only the Cowboys have expressed interest in Saleh.

The Cowboys seem to want to keep offensive coordinator Brian Schottenheimer because they don't want Dak Prescott to learn a brand-new system. So they could promote Schottenheimer to head coach, but that would be an unpopular move. Or they could hire a head coach who is willing to work with Schottenheimer. Perhaps Saleh would be that coach.

The Cowboys have to be kicking themselves for letting Dan Quinn become the Washington Commanders head coach. He was their defensive coordinator -- they could have fired Mike McCarthy and promoted Quinn to head coach. Now McCarthy is out and Quinn is gone. Perhaps the Cowboys see Saleh as similar to Quinn. They're both energetic coaches who come from Pete Carroll's coaching tree.

Stay tuned.

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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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