08-05-2025
49ers' Robert Saleh says he's looking 2 years ahead as he rebuilds defense
SANTA CLARA, Calif. — Though the San Francisco 49ers' recent draft class has all sorts of similarities to players Robert Saleh coached previously in San Francisco, the team's defensive coordinator insists his eye is very much on the future.
'You know, you're always trying to stay two years ahead of the offense,' Saleh said Thursday during his first public comments since being hired in January. 'There's always trends with offenses, and you can get an idea of what they're trying to do and what they're trying to get done. You're just trying to pick up on those trends. I don't want to get into too much detail, but you're always trying to stay ahead of them.'
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Saleh avoided specifics but said his scheme has evolved 'significantly' since 2017, his initial season with the 49ers, and even from 2019, the year the defense took a major shift with the hiring of defensive line coach Kris Kocurek and the implementation of the Wide 9 front.
That year was considered the high-water mark for recent 49ers defenses. They finished first in pass defense, tallied 48 sacks — including 41 by their defensive linemen — and allowed fewer than 20 points per game.
That unit seemed to be on the 49ers' collective mind during the recent draft.
In the third round, they took a linebacker, Nick Martin, who reminded them of Dre Greenlaw, a 14-game starter, including the Super Bowl, during his rookie year in 2019. Later in the round, they snagged a pint-size but pugnacious nickel cornerback, Upton Stout, who seems like a carbon copy of former 49ers nickelback K'Waun Williams. Williams' best NFL season came in 2019, when he had career highs in interceptions (two) and forced fumbles (four).
In the fourth round, they selected C.J. West, a defensive tackle who reminds them of one-time 49er D.J. Jones. Kocurek has been pining for Jones-like defenders over the past two seasons. Now he has two: Evan Anderson, whom Kocurek fought hard to land after last year's draft, and West.
'Extremely stout, sturdy, but also has the quickness and strength to play in the other team's backfield,' general manager John Lynch said of West. 'Makes a lot of splash plays in the other team's backfield.'
In second-round pick Alfred Collins, the 49ers have length in the middle of their defensive line that they haven't had since Arik Armstead and DeForest Buckner lined up next to each other. And in first-rounder Mykel Williams, the team has a bookend for defensive end Nick Bosa that it hasn't had since Dee Ford started having back issues midway through the 2019 season.
Then there's Saleh himself.
The 49ers seemed locked in on Saleh as their next defensive coordinator as soon as the season ended, and they waited nearly three weeks for him to look into head coaching opportunities before hiring him to a top-of-the-market contract.
Saleh, who left the 49ers to become the New York Jets head coach in 2021, was asked Thursday whether he considered going to a different team, one with which he hadn't already built a reputation. He said no and gave two reasons.
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The first was loyalty to Kyle Shanahan, Lynch and CEO Jed York, who made him a first-time coordinator in 2017. The talent-starved 49ers struggled that season and the next, and a chorus of fans began calling for his job.
'And it could have been very easy to move on from me,' he said. 'So I'm indebted to this organization, to those men, for the rest of my life.'
Saleh also cited the collaboration between the 49ers' coaching and scouting staffs that he said doesn't exist with other franchises.
'Most buildings maybe spend a week in terms of communication between scouting department and coaching staff with regards to the draft,' he said. 'This organization will spend three to four weeks just grinding on tape — offense, defense, special teams and going deep into the seventh round (and) undrafted free-agent-type players. And I think that's why this organization has had so much success finding Day 3 picks that come to fruition. And even the undrafted free agents end up having success in this league.'
Saleh met with the 49ers' top personnel officials as soon as he arrived in January to discuss how he has evolved since leaving to become the Jets' head coach.
One difference may be the size of the defensive ends he sought when he first arrived in 2017 versus what he's looking for now. The Wide 9 requires big-bodied ends who can set an edge in the running game and plow through tight ends on pass plays, something that's reflected in the 6-foot-5, 267-pound Williams.
The cornerbacks, meanwhile, seem to have gotten smaller. Early on in Saleh's first 49ers tenure, the team looked for tall, long cornerbacks like the Seattle Seahawks used — someone like former Seahawk Richard Sherman. More recently, the 49ers have found success with smaller, feisty players like Deommodore Lenoir and Renardo Green.
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'When (Saleh) came in, he sat down with us, and he kind of talked about how he's evolved and his time away from here, and he also heard from us how we've evolved and how we see players,' director of player personnel RJ Gillen said last month. 'And then we came together and took a consensus in terms of the plan and type of players and skill sets and fits moving forward.'
The 49ers ended up taking defensive players with their first five picks, the first time the franchise has done so since 1981. Three of those picks — Ronnie Lott, Eric Wright and Carlton Williamson — were 16-game starters as rookies.
Saleh made it clear the incoming rookies who arrived this week for minicamp have plenty of work before any can be declared starters, including understanding Saleh's 'all gas, no break' philosophy. But it's also clear that after an offseason roster purge, there are opportunities to be had.
'They've got OTAs, training camp — it's gonna be a crash course,' Saleh said. 'And if any of them are worthy, they'll be on the field Week 1.'
