Robert Saleh is suddenly a commodity among the college coaching ranks.
The Cleveland Browns weren’t the only team to want to interview 49ers defensive coordinator Robert Saleh for a head coach opening. Michigan State football reached out to Saleh as well for their freshly-vacated head coaching spot according to Tom Pelissero of NFL Network.
Michigan State’s former head coach Mark Dantonio on Tuesday stepped down from his position after 13 seasons. The Spartans reached out to Saleh in hopes of wooing the 49ers’ defensive coordinator out of the NFL and back to the college ranks.
Saleh is a native of Dearborn, Mich. and got his first coaching job at Michigan State in 2002 – the same year he graduated from Northern Michigan University.
While it would’ve been a chance at his first head-coaching gig, Saleh opted to reject the interview to stay in Santa Clara to lead a defense that nearly led the 49ers to a Super Bowl victory in the 2019 campaign.
The Browns initially reached out to Saleh and interviewed him ahead of the 49ers’ divisional playoff game against Minnesota. He was in the running for the job until late in the process when Cleveland opted to go with Vikings offensive coordinator Kevin Stefanski. Two teams reaching out to Saleh for head coach interviews just three years into his tenure as a defensive coordinator is a strong indicator of what’s to come for Saleh should the 49ers’ defense continue to thrive under his guidance.
Michigan State requested an interview with Robert Saleh of the 49ers but he turned down the request.
Long-time MSU Football head coach Mark Dantonio retired this week and it has left Michigan State with a coaching search. One of the names on the Spartans’ wish list was Robert Saleh, defensive coordinator for the San Francisco 49ers. According to NFL Network report Tom Pelissero, Saleh has turned down the Spartans’ offer to interview with the team, stating that he has unfinished business with the Niners after losing in the Super Bowl to the Kansas City Chiefs.
Saleh has spent the last 15 years in the NFL and 3 years with the 49ers, but before that, he was a graduate of Dearborn Fordson High School. He also played college football at Northern Michigan before starting his coaching career as a graduate assistant for Michigan State in 2002. He was with the Spartans for two seasons and coached for Bobby Williams and John L. Smith.
Here is the initial report from Tom Pelissero:
Michigan State requested an interview with #49ers DC Robert Saleh for its head coaching job, sources say, but Saleh informed school officials today he plans on staying in San Francisco. Feels he has unfinished business.
It’s about that time for the Battle for the Lombardi as the San Francisco 49ers will take on the Kansas City Chiefs at Hard Rock Stadium in Miami Gardens. On one side, San Francisco will enter the game with a tenacious defense that ended the regular …
It’s about that time for the Battle for the Lombardi as the San Francisco 49ers will take on the Kansas City Chiefs at Hard Rock Stadium in Miami Gardens.
On one side, San Francisco will enter the game with a tenacious defense that ended the regular season first against the pass (allowing an average of 169.2 yards per game) and second in total yards allowed (allowing an average of 281.8 yards per game). All this success has come under defensive coordinator and former Jacksonville Jaguars assistant Robert Saleh, who has done a phenomenal job with the talent of Nick Bosa, Richard Sherman, and others.
Of course, on the other side is quarterback Patrick Mahomes, who is arguably the top player in the game right now. With offensive masterminds Andy Reid and Eric Bieniemy by his side, Mahomes and the Chiefs’ offense finished the regular season fifth in points (28.2 point average) and fifth in passing yards (281.1 yard average). They also have an elite pair of pass-catchers in Tyreek Hill and Travis Kelce who combined for over 2,000 yards in the regular season.
Of course, the Jaguars only met one of these teams in the regular season, and that was the Chiefs. That said, which of these two teams will you be pulling for in the Super Bowl as a fan of the Cardiac Cats? Let us know in the poll below.
How does the Jags Wire staff feel about Super Bowl LIV? Let’s just say we aren’t high on the favorites.
Super Bowl Sunday is amongst us, and while the Jacksonville Jaguars aren’t playing, we still felt it was only right to post our predictions on the big game. Heading into Super Bowl LIV, the oddsmakers over at BetMGM have the Kansas City Chiefs down as favorites by a margin of 1.5, however, the San Francisco 49ers have a very good defense that could cause some problems for them Sunday.
Here is how each of the contributors at Jags Wire envision this thing playing out:
Heading into 2019, most knew what the Chiefs were capable of offensively but our Jags got to witness their greatness Week 1. After that game, I became even more of a believer in them more so because of how in sync they looked early in the season and their success continued from that point.
The 49ers are somewhat of a surprise on the other hand, but after evaluating the job that general manager John Lynch has done putting together their roster, it actually shouldn’t be a shocker. Additionally, coach Kyle Shanahan is a brilliant offensive mind, while defensive coordinator Robert Saleh is having even more success on the opposite end of the ball, which brings me to my next point. Saleh will be the X-factor here, however, I think he has to rely more on man-to-man coverage Sunday in hopes that his talented front four can get home quick. If he successfully does that the 49ers can keep this game lower than expected.
In Week 1 the Jags faced this Chiefs team and they looked absolutely unstoppable. I had a feeling right then and there they would end up playing this Sunday when it was all said and done.
However, I did not see the 49ers coming.
This should be one of the best Super Bowl matchups we’ve had in a long time. What this ultimately comes down to, is which coaching staff do I trust more? Andy Reid notoriously comes up short in big moments and Kyle Shanahan has had two weeks to prepare for this game.
To me, this reminds me of the Seahawks-Broncos Super Bowl from a few years ago. A high powered offense against a top tier defense. And yes, Patrick Mahomes is a different dude, however, defense wins championships. San Francisco is the more complete team and will keep Andy Reid and Mahomes waiting.
Well, it’s funny that we find ourselves here for another year without the Jags in the Super Bowl but alas we have a matchup that should ensure happiness for Jags fans because the Chiefs beat the deeply despised Titans.
This is a matchup between one high powered offense going up against a defense that has been causing issues for teams all year when healthy. While many believe a shootout would favor the Chiefs, I’m inclined to side with the 49ers who beat the Saints in NOLA in a shootout. Either way this game will be better than the previous Super Bowl.
Daniel Griffis (@DanDGriffis): 49ers 31, Chiefs 27
When the Jaguars were looking to hire a head coach a few years back, the one coach I was hoping they would hire was Atlanta Falcons offensive coordinator, Kyle Shanahan. It turned out that he was developed into one of the league’s brightest offensive minds.
Patrick Mahomes is as talented as they come, however, I think Shanahan’s craftiness as a play-designer and play-caller has the 49ers destined to hoist the Lombardi trophy.
This is going to be a Super Bowl worth watching as fans get to witness two teams with great play-callers in Andy Reid and Kyle Shanahan. It’s extremely tough to bet against Patrick Mahomes, but the 49ers defense is on a tear, which is why it’s even tougher to bet against them.
What’s the only thing that could cap off Patrick Mahomes’ designation as the next king amongst NFL quarterbacks over the past two seasons? A Super Bowl title. It goes without saying Kansas City has been teetering on the edge of greatness under Andy Reid, and fans will be hoping this Sunday marks the end of his long wait for a title.
Despite the strides that the 49ers’ defense has taken this year, I think the Kansas City offensive unit just has too much firepower. Kyle Shanahan will likely rely on his run game for the majority of the game, as he has done for most of the playoffs, but if the Chiefs get ahead early, I don’t think Jimmy Garoppolo has the ability to win the game.
San Francisco has to hope their defense can keep Mahomes in check, otherwise this game might be fairly one-sided.
The San Francisco 49ers have former Houston Texans assistant coaches, but fans shouldn’t keep feeling bad about it.
Have you heard? The San Francisco 49ers have seven coaches on their staff with direct ties to the Houston Texans.
Who cares.
Of course, the fact, compounded with incumbent coach Bill O’Brien failing to get the team to a conference championship game, is one that could make Texans fans feel they missed on an opportunity.
It’s not a valid reason.
Take the biggest example of the seven coaches in 49ers coach Kyle Shanahan. The son of a two-time Super Bowl winner, Mike Shanahan, Kyle was the receivers coach, later quarterbacks coach, and then offensive coordinator from 2006-09 under coach Gary Kubiak.
Houston should have kept him. After all, he’s coaching San Francisco in the Super Bowl while O’Brien is blowing 24-point leads in playoff games.
Maybe Washington could say the same thing. After all, Shanahan was their offensive coordinator during his father’s tenure with the NFC East club from 2010-13. Instead, he was out with his dad.
Maybe the Cleveland Browns should feel bad their offensive coordinator for a season, their banner 7-9 season, left the AFC North to take the same job with the Atlanta Falcons. That is where his offense failed to score another point after leading the New England Patriots 28-3 in Super Bowl LI in Houston.
The 49ers also experienced growing pains with Shanahan as he led them to two losing seasons before the renaissance year of 2019.
In other words, these coaches still had some growing to do, proving to do before they landed in San Francisco and it all clicked.
The case with Kubiak and the Denver Brocnos is actually a situation Texans fans should regret more. Kubiak added six former coaches that were on his staff in Houston: defensive coordinator Wade Phillips, defensive line coach Bill Kollar, linebackers coach Reggie Herring, offensive assistant Marc Lubick, tight ends coach Brian Pariani, and offensive coordinator Rick Dennison. That staff won the Super Bowl two seasons after most of them were swept out the door following a 2-14 disaster.
49ers defensive coordinator Robert Saleh had two stops before landing in San Francisco, where he, too, endured two losing seasons.
Special teams coach Richard Hightower had five stops in between the Bayou City and the City by the Bay, and he is actually on his second tour of duty with the Niners.
Offensive line coach John Benton had two stops before San Francisco, and he also coached through the losing seasons.
Outside linebackers coach Johnny Holland had four stops in between.
Run game coordinator Mike McDaniel also had four stops between Houston and San Francisco.
Even DeMeco Ryans played four seasons with the Philadelphia Eagles and was out of football entirely for 2016 before he ended up on the 49ers’ coaching staff.
These former Texans coaches got good enough to lead a team to the Super Bowl thanks to their experiences gained at other stops, and their most recent jobs should be the ones ruing the day they let them go. There are too many degrees of separation between all of the ex-coaches and the Texans.
The 49ers come into Super Bowl LIV with a championship-level defense. That doesn’t mean they’ll be able to contain Patrick Mahomes.
MIAMI — The 2019 San Francisco 49ers defense dealt with a late-season wobble due to injuries to key players Dee Ford, Kwon Alexander, and Jaquiski Tartt and has come back recently to retain its status as one of the best defenses in the NFL. Only the Patriots had a better Defensive DVOA (Football Outsiders’ opponent-adjusted efficiency metric) than the 49ers, and neither the Vikings nor the Packers had much of an answer for them in the playoffs.
It’s a significant strength coming into Super Bowl LIV. The problem is, San Francisco’s significant strength is about to run into the Chiefs’ overwhelming strength, which is their offense when Patrick Mahomes is healthy. The reigning NFL MVP worked through knee and hand injuries this season, but recent games have shown a relatively clean bill of health for Mahomes the thrower and Mahomes the runner, and that’s a rather glaring problem for 49ers defensive coordinator Robert Saleh and his crew, no matter how good they have been.
The respect San Francisco holds for Mahomes is evident and well-deserved.
“One, his mobility is unique,” Saleh recently said when asked to analyze what makes Mahomes so formidable. “His arm strength is ridiculous. He’s very, very accurate. But, what I don’t think people give him enough credit for is that he actually plays quarterback. There’s a lot of people, there’s a lot of quarterbacks in this league that will say no to number one [the first progression] and then it just becomes street ball. He gets rid of the ball on time. He puts it where it needs to be. He hits a lot of throws in rhythm. And when he needs to take his shot, he knows how to buy time in the pocket and do it. So, he’s a superstar in every way you can possibly imagine and he’s going to be tough to deal with.”
And then, there’s the matter of Mahomes’ receivers — Tyreek Hill, Sammy Watkins, Mecole Hardman, and tight end Travis Kelce. In a word, yikes.
“They’re, at every position, it almost looks like they got their roster from the Olympic relay team and threw them all on the football field,” Saleh said. “Not to say they can’t run routes and catch either, because they can do that. They’re a special group and you can see why they’re there.”
Understanding the challenge is one thing. Dealing with it is another. The combination of Mahomes’ acumen and the ridiculous speed and synchronization of his receivers make Mahomes the most terrifying deep thrower in the NFL. Through the 2019 regular season and postseason, per Pro Football Focus, Mahomes has attempted just 69 passes of 20 or more air yards (Aaron Rodgers has led the league with 101), but he’s completed 36 of them for 1,275 yards, a league-leading 15 touchdowns, just two interceptions, and a league-leading passer rating of 125.2.
This is not great news for San Francisco’s pass defense, which fared pretty well on Richard Sherman’s left side in DVOA against deep passes, ranking seventh in the league, but was average elsewhere. This defense ranked 21st against deep passes over the middle, and 15th to the right. Dealing with Mahomes’ deep ball and his deep receivers is a challenge every defense eventually faces, and now, it’s San Francisco’s turn.
But wait… there’s more. Much more. Basically, Patrick Mahomes is a modern-day defensive nightmare.
Playing against Mahomes is a bit like hanging on to a tiger by the tail — it’s dangerous when you engage, and fatal when you let go. The Texans found that out in the wild-card round of the playoffs when they put up a 24-0 lead on the Chiefs, only to watch Mahomes and that offense score touchdowns on seven straight drives on the way to a 51-31 win. Mahomes threw five touchdown passes in that game, tight end Travis Kelce caught three of them, and Houston’s no-matter-what strategy of playing man coverage was exposed as a fool’s errand.
Not that the 49ers play a lot of man defense; in the 2019 season, they did so on just 61 targets, allowing 47 completions for 638 yards, seven touchdowns, and two interceptions. San Francisco plays mostly iterations of zone defense led by pressure from a voluminous front four, speed linebackers Kwon Alexander and Fred Warner, and a great secondary when everyone’s healthy and the right people are in.
But against Cover-3 and Cover-4, San Francisco’s two primary coverages this season, Per Sports Info Solutions, Mahomes has completed 33 of 47 passes of 15 air yards or more for 1,036 yards, 795 air yards, 10 touchdowns, one interception, and a quarterback rating of 143.4. The 49ers defended 379 catchable targets in the regular season; 196 were in either Cover-3 (114) or Cover-4 (82). And when defending passing attempts of 15 or more air yards this season in those two coverages, the 49ers allowed 21 completions on 37 attempts for 492 yards, four touchdowns, and two interceptions. The deep ball could be a problem for Richard Sherman and his friends.
This is not a strength-against-strength battle for the 49ers, though replacing cornerback Ahkello Witherspoon with Emmanuel Moseley has really worked well in the playoffs. In two postseason games, Moseley has allowed six catches on 11 targets for 58 yards, 29 yards after the catch, no touchdowns, one interception, and an opponent passer rating of 31.6. Last time Mahomes faced a secondary this statistically formidable, it was last December 8 against New England, when he completed 26 of 40 passes for 283 yards, one touchdown, and one interception in a 23-16 win for the Chiefs. The Patriots play man coverage at the league’s highest rate, but they also have the best overall secondary from a talent-to-scheme perspective.
Bottom line, there isn’t a schematic edge to be gained when you’re facing Mahomes. You must play sound coverage at every level, and you must know who to double when. Sometimes it means doubling tight end Travis Kelce; other times, it could mean throwing a bracket at Tyreek Hill on a vertical route. But you have to have answers for those two, as well as receivers Sammy Watkins and Mecole Hardman. In 2019, Kansas City put three receivers and a tight end on the field on 359 of Mahomes’ dropbacks — he attempted 332 passes, completing 220 for 2,896 yards, 1,421 air yards, 21 touchdowns, and four interceptions.
Okay, you say — just get some heat on him with that great 49ers front four, and it’s all good. Well, not so much. In the 2019 regular season and postseason, including the games he played in which he had lower-body injuries and really couldn’t break the pocket as he’d like to, Mahomes completed 71 of 145 passes for 1,057 yards, a league-leading 12 touchdowns, and just two interceptions. And if you’re thinking of blitzing him — well, don’t. That takes a defender out of coverage, and that’s when Mahomes really gets going. Against the blitz this season, he’s completed 62 of 92 passes for 805 yards, seven touchdowns, and no interceptions.
Here in Week 14, New England gets pressure up the middle, but it doesn’t matter. Mahomes just side-steps it, waits for Hardman to scald the one-on-one coverage, and does his thing downfield. It’s an underthrow, but as Hardman is in the next county by the time the ball comes down, that doesn’t really matter.
So, how to stop Mahomes, or at least slow him down? Sending as many defenders into coverage as possible is one way to go.
The Lions, for all their failures in the 2019 season, did a pretty decent job of limiting explosive plays from the Chiefs in a 34-30 Week 4 loss — and they did it without cornerback Darius Slay, who missed the game with a hamstring injury, and safety Quandre Diggs, who suffered his own hamstring injury in the first half. Mahomes completed 24 of 42 passes for 315 yards, but he also didn’t throw a touchdown pass for the first time in a 14-game stretch, one short of the NFL record set by Peyton Manning. In that game, the Lions endeavored to double both Watkins and Kelce. They totaled 71 snaps in the slot from their cornerbacks, linebackers, and safeties. Detroit’s defenders had the athleticism to delay Mahomes’ reads, bump and constrict receiver freedom through the routes, and clamp down when the ball came down in potential big-play situations.
The problem with using the Detroit game as a model for the Super Bowl is that Tyreek Hill was also out of that game with a broken clavicle he suffered in Week 1 against the Jaguars. When Hill’s in there, taking one of your safeties and maybe your slot cornerback downtown on every play, it adds some complexity to the recipe.
That said, Detroit did present a favorable paradigm by playing a lot of aggressive coverage looks at the line, and added some pattern-reading principles to best follow Mahomes’ targets through their routes. The Lions also got to their coverage spots with a delay at times, perhaps to limit the amount of time Mahomes had to diagnose who was covering who. Of course, with all those rushing lanes opened through coverage, Mahomes was able to run, which he did for what was then a career high of 54 yards.
And if the 49ers want to run a ton of nickel against this offense, they should go with the feeling. Fred Warner and Kwon Alexander are quality coverage linebackers, and in K’Waun Williams, San Francisco has a great slot defender. From the slot this season, Williams has allowed 48 catches on 66 targets for 375 yards, no touchdowns, two interceptions, and an opponent passer rating of 73.7.
Watch the way he reads Steelers quarterback Mason Rudolph in Week 3 as Rudolph breaks the pocket and tries to hit receiver JuJu Smith-Schuster on a mobile option route. The result? An interception.
The ability to spy the quarterback as he extends the play and jump the throw in time could be a somewhat valuable asset against Mahomes.
Different kinds of pattern-matching and pattern-reading have been as close to Kryptonite as anything in Mahomes’ NFL career. The Broncos confounded him in 2018 with different match blitzes that proved effective. But Mahomes sees the field more effectively now, and he’s better at taking apart coverages, especially disguised coverages. There’s also a legitimate question about the 49ers’ ability to deal with the Chiefs’ receiver speed in anything approaching man or match coverage.
In the AFC Championship game, the Titans tried a different approach with three-man rushes, putting eight in coverage at times, only to see Mahomes run eight times for 53 yards and one amazing touchdown.
Mahomes also completed 23 of 35 passes for 294 yards, three touchdowns, and no interceptions. With that, another conclusion becomes clear: Blitz Mahomes, and he’ll kill you. Drop eight, and he’ll kill you. Fun!
“When you have all these weapons, and you only bring a three-man rush, it gives me room to run it,” Mahomes said after the game. “I love being here with this team, and all these guys make things a lot easier.”
Finding ways to stop Patrick Mahomes at this point in the season is like being asked to build a perfect weapon with a bunch of stuff from the junk drawer in your kitchen. No matter how good your defense is, the options are limited. If Saleh can pull off a MacGyver and actually create the perfect beast in Super Bowl LIV, he’ll have done more than most defensive coordinators have managed — and he’ll most likely be rewarded with a Lombardi Trophy.
Touchdown Wire editor Doug Farrar previously covered football for Yahoo! Sports, Sports Illustrated, Bleacher Report, the Washington Post, and Football Outsiders. His first book, “The Genius of Desperation,” a schematic history of professional football, was published by Triumph Books in 2018 and won the Professional Football Researchers Association’s Nelson Ross Award for “Outstanding recent achievement in pro football research and historiography.”
A comprehensive look at how the San Francisco 49ers play.
The San Francisco 49ers are a triumph of coaching. Few expected them to be playing in Super Bowl 54, but here they are, days away from playing the Kansas City Chiefs for the Lombardi Trophy.
There’s two types of coaching to be lauded here, though. Head coach Kyle Shanahan uses a smart, dynamic scheme to create mismatches. He finds ways to get his players the space they need.
Defensive coordinator Robert Saleh, meanwhile, hardly makes adjustments. He figured out how his defense, led by a ferocious line, should play and lets them go.
Shanahan has blossomed as a head coach and his scheme took a step forward this year with the addition of a few talented wide receivers that allowed him to show defenses different looks and get matchups he wanted. We wanted to explain how that offense works — while also taking a look and what has made the defense so good.
(All statistics from Sports Info Solutions unless otherwise noted.)
49ERS OFFENSE
A year after playing more 21 personnel (2 RBs, 1 TE, 2 WRs) than any NFL team, the 49ers joined the rest of the league in basing out of 11 personnel (1 RB, 1 TE, 3 WRs.) Drafting Deebo Samuel and trading for Emmanuel Sanders gave Kyle Shanahan more talent to work at receiver and he has responded by putting more pass catchers on the field. Still, the 49ers are at their best when FB Kyle Juszczyk is out there with George Kittle, the best blocking tight end in the NFL.
The 49ers passing game is well designed but there isn’t a whole lot going on here after the snap. If Jimmy Garoppolo isn’t taking a deep drop off play-action, he’s mostly likely throwing a quick pass after a short, three-step drop. No full-time starter threw fewer non-play-action passes on five- and seven-step drops. The numbers suggest that’s a wise strategy, as Garoppolo is averaging -0.14 Expected Points Added per dropback on those plays.
Garoppolo is at his best when he can get the ball out of his hand quickly, and that usually requires a good pre-snap read. Shanahan will give his quarterback coverage indicators with motion and formations, and have a man-beating concept to one side and a zone-beating concept to the other. His favorite man-beater is the slant-flat concept, or as Shanahan calls it “Dragon,” which sounds so much cooler.
When the 49ers want to take a shot downfield, that’s when Shanahan will dust off his trusted three-level concepts off of play-action. The offensive line will block as if it’s executing one of the 49ers’ various run concepts, meanwhile, there will be one receiver running deep to occupy the deep defenders and one running to the flat to draw the second-level of the defense. All of that clears out space for a receiver to run an intermediate crossing route. Shanahan has several different variations of this same concept. This one is particularly crafty with George Kittle sneaking through the pass blockers before running his route.
The Shanahans have been torching the league with this concept for decades now.
On designed rollouts off play-action, meanwhile, Garoppolo averaged a ridiculous 0.76 EPA per dropback and produced a success rate of 69%. Both of those numbers led the NFL in 2019.
The Shanahans are known for their love of outside zone — or “wide zone” in their terminology — but Kyle’s run game has grown more diverse over the years. In the NFC title game alone, I charted 13 different concepts.
Now, outside zone is still the foundation of this entire offense, but the 49ers run several different variations. Against the Packers, the variation du jour was the outside zone toss, which allowed RB Raheem Mostert to get downhill quicker. With Kittle and Juszczyk sealing the edge, the 49ers’ speedy group of running backs have no problem getting to the edge.
Teams can’t just gear up to stop outside zone, however. If they do, Shanahan has plenty of counters on his call sheet. One of those counters is a trap play the 49ers have been using more often later in the season. The offensive line will down block and leave the edge defender to the backside unblocked initially before the guard from the opposite side pulls around to block him, which creates a running lane for the back.
The 49ers will also run counter and windback zone against overeager defenses. The goal of every run call Shanahan makes is to create advantageous blocking angles for his offensive line.
You wouldn’t know it by looking at the sack or run numbers, but the 49ers offensive line has not played all that well this season. Missing stalwart LT Joe Staley for a significant chunk of the season contributed to the poor performance, but even when at full strength, none of the five players has looked all that dominant. Luckily, the 49ers have a wizard designing their offense, and Shanahan’s play designs have made his line’s job so much easier. The weak link is clearly RG Mike Person, who struggles to make blocks on the move. C Ben Garland has been solid after replacing the injured Weston Richburg, and he needed to be with how big a role the center plays in Shanahan’s scheme.
49ERS DEFENSE
In terms of personnel usage, the 49ers might be the most uninteresting team in the league. If an offense is playing with only two receivers, defensive coordinator Robert Saleh is going to match with base defense. If the offense adds a third receiver, Saleh will sub out LB Dre Greenlaw, who is more of a gap plugger, and replace him with standout slot corner K’Waun Williams. The 49ers only went to their dime package in the most obvious of passing situations.
The perception of Saleh’s defense is that it’s a clone of Pete Carroll’s scheme during the height of the Legion of Boom. But that’s not necessarily true. Yes, the 49ers play A LOT of zone coverage, but they’re not sitting in Cover 3 all day like those Seahawks teams at the start of the decade. San Francisco is playing a lot of quarters concepts, and they are quite good at them, surrendering -0.66 EPA per dropback. Cover 3 is still Saleh’s favorite coverage, but he’s not using it nearly as much as he has in past years.
The back end of the 49ers defense is stagnant. Richard Sherman is always going to line up on the left, Emmanuel Moseley will man the right side, K’Waun William takes the slot while Jimmie Ward patrols the deep middle and Jaquiski Tartt drops into the box when San Francisco goes single high. Fred Warner and Kwon Alexander occupy the middle of the field. Ward and Tartt will switch responsibilities from time-to-time based on matchup. Ward is better in coverage while Tartt is a harder hitter. The weak link in coverage — relatively speaking, of course, is Moseley. It had been Ahkello Witherspoon, but he lost his starting job to the undrafted free agent.
You’re looking at the deepest defensive line in football. The 49ers have five first-round picks on their defensive line alone, and two of them don’t even start! Rookie DE Nick Bosa is the best pass rusher of the bunch. Dee Ford, who is working his way back from injury, is not far behind but he mostly plays on passing downs. Arik Armstead starts opposite of Bosa as a heavy defensive end whose priority is to stop the run. He’ll move inside next to DeForest Buckner when Ford comes on the field and nose tackle Sheldon Day will go to the sideline.
Seven coaches from the NFC champion San Francisco 49ers staff were once members of the Houston Texans coaching staff together from 2006-08.
The Houston Texans once had seven of the coaches from the NFC champion San Francisco 49ers right on their own coaching staff from 2006-08.
The most obvious is coach Kyle Shanahan, who served in a variety of capacities for the Texans under coach Gary Kubiak. In 2006, he was the receivers coach and later become quarterbacks coach in 2007. From 2008-09, Shanahan was the offensive coordinator until leaving for Washington to serve under his father, Mike Shanahan, in the same capacity.
The second coach on the Niners staff that used to be with Houston was run game coordinator Mike McDaniel. With the Texans from 2006-08, he was an offensive assistant. After leaving for the UFL for two seasons, McDaniel followed Shanahan to Washington.
The third coach is offensive line coach John Benton. Much like with San Francisco, Benton was the offensive line coach for the Texans from 2006-13 when Kubiak got fired with three games to go. When the organization cleaned house as part of the ushering in of the Bill O’Brien era, Benton went, too.
The fourth coach is defensive coordinator Robert Saleh. In 2005, Saleh joined the Texans as a defensive intern. From 2006-08, he was a defensive quality control coach, and later became an assistant linebackers coach from 2009-10. When the organization brought in defensive coordinator Wade Phillips, the latter brought in Reggie Herring as his linebackers coach, and out went Saleh to Seattle for three seasons for spending another three in Jacksonville and landing with the 49ers in 2017.
The fifth coach is outside linebackers coach Johnny Holland. From 2006-10, he was with the Texans as a linebackers coach. Herring came in and took his job specifically, and Holland spent time in the UFL and CFL while finding gigs in the NFL in between.
The sixth coach was actually not a coach when he was with the Texans, and that is inside linebackers coach DeMeco Ryans. The former 2006 second-round pick from Alabama played linebacker for Houston from 2006-11 before finishing out his last four seasons with the Philadelphia Eagles. Shanahan gave him a job in 2017 as a defensive quality control coach before promoting him to inside linebackers coach in 2018.
The seventh and final coach is special teams coordinator Richard Hightower. He was a special teams assistant with the Texans in 2008, and went on to the University of Minnesota to be a receivers coach in 2009. Hightower spent time coaching under Shanahan in Washington from 2010-13 before going to the 49ers for a one-season stint in 2015. In 2016, he was a special teams assistant with the Chicago Bears, and finally became a special teams coordinator in 2017 for the 49ers.
Who is to say it all would have worked out the same for the Texans as it has for the 49ers? Nonetheless, all seven of these coaches were together and got some valuable experience on the McNairs’ watch in Houston.
Touchdown Wire ranks (from worst to best) the four coaches remaining in the NFL’s postseason.
If you did a ranking of the league’s head coaches at any other time, New England’s Bill Belichick would top the list. After all, the man has won six Super Bowls.
But, in this case, we’re talking only about the here and now. Belichick doesn’t even qualify for this list. That’s because we’re ranking only the four coaches whose teams will be playing in the conference championship games.
We’re ranking only Green Bay’s Matt LaFleur, Kansas City’s Andy Reid, San Francisco’s Kyle Shanahan and Tennessee’s Mike Vrabel. This is a unique crew of coaches. Reid is the well-known veteran while the other three are in the early years of their careers.
With a trip to the Super Bowl on the line, Touchdown Wire provides a scouting report and ranking of each of the four head coaches remaining. We go from worst to best.
4. Kyle Shanahan, San Francisco 49ers
This is Shanahan’s first winning season in his three years as a head coach. The 49ers have been outstanding in most areas. But I think it’s still a little too early to classify Shanahan as a great head coach. He certainly may get there and it may be soon. But, for now, I see him as a great offensive coordinator. That’s his background and he holds the coordinator and play-calling duties with the 49ers. Shanahn is a master out of running and passing out of the same personnel groups and formations. Wisely, he’s not really involved on defense. He leaves that at up to coordinator Robert Saleh, who is one of the best in the business.
The 49ers will get to keep their defensive coordinator after the Browns coaching search landed on the Vikings’ offensive coordinator.
The Cleveland Browns have hired a head coach, and it won’t be 49ers defensive coordinator Robert Saleh. NFL Media’s Ian Rapoport on Sunday reported the Browns are set to hire Vikings offensive coordinator Kevin Stefanski.
Saleh emerged as a top candidate for the Browns job after they interviewed him during the team’s bye week in the first round of the playoffs. The 49ers defense saw a dramatic turnaround this season, finishing No. 8 in points allowed and No. 2 in yards allowed a year after they finished No. 28 and No. 13 in those categories, respectively.
Buzz that Saleh might’ve landed the job reached a fever pitch Saturday morning ahead of the 49ers’ divisional playoff game against the Vikings when reports surfaced that Cleveland requested to interview Colts assistant general manager Ed Dodds for their general manager opening. Dodds was one of Saleh’s top choices to join him in Cleveland according to Rapoport.
Saleh’s defense put on a masterpiece against Stefanski’s offense in that divisional playoff game. The 49ers held the Vikings to 147 total yards, 21 rushing yards, and seven first downs in a 27-10 49ers win.
Keeping Saleh in Santa Clara is great news for the 49ers on several levels. Saleh has been a terrific defensive coordinator this season, but there was also a chance he plucked other members of the 49ers’ coaching staff for his staff in Cleveland. There’s still a chance that happens, but it felt inevitable if Saleh took a head coach job.
Now the 49ers can prepare for the NFC championship game without wondering about their defensive coordinator’s future, but the fact Saleh was a top candidate for a team this year means he’ll likely be a consistent name in head-coaching searches.