The 49ers interviewed former Chargers head coach Brandon Staley for their defensive coordinator opening this offseason. They hired Staley, but not for the DC job. That went to 49ers defensive pass game specialist Nick Sorensen.
Sorensen is a first-time coordinator while Staley earned a head coaching job because of his time as a defensive coordinator with the Rams. The hires led to some questions about how Staley will fit in a coaching staff that already has a defensive coordinator, but Sorensen on Friday in his first press conference explained what Staley will bring to San Francisco’s defense.
“He has experience as a coordinator, he has experience as a head coach, so he sees things holistically,” Sorensen told reporters. “He knows how to build plans. Just getting him in here and spending extra hours just talking football with him, he’s very bright and is really a humble guy who is smart and knows football. That’s been really awesome and helpful for me.”
The 49ers’ DC went on to explain what Staley’s role would be.
“He’s been helping me overall,” Sorensen said. “He’s been involved with pretty much everything, as far as, ‘here is where we did this’ and I’ve been kind of talking him through how we play certain things, watching things throughout the League and what other teams do. Some of the things that he did, asking would this fit or would it not fit in our defense? And some things I was already familiar with from just watching different defenses.
“You naturally see other defenses do things. He’s been more connected with the DBs and the nickels, but he also has experience elsewhere with defensive ends and outside linebackers. But with the staff that we have, I think for me it’s going to be really helpful that he’s done it before and he’s had success and he’s been a head coach as well. So, like I said, it’s been great.”
One of the reasons the 49ers moved on from DC Steve Wilks after last season was because he never quite got on the same page with his defensive personnel and what the team wanted to do on that side of the ball. Hiring an internal candidate made sense given those issues, but bringing in Staley added a potential variable that could cause an issue.
It sounds like the early portion of Sorensen’s move to defensive coordinator has been aided by having Staley around though. Having that many good defensive minds in the building will ultimately benefit the 49ers as long as the Sorensen-Staley relationship remains as good as it has started.
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