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How Robert Saleh has Changed Since his First Stint as 49ers DC

He must be so happy to be back where his career took off.

Grant Cohn

May 9, 2025; Santa Clara, CA, USA; San Francisco 49ers defensive coordinator Robert Saleh, right, watches the action during the teamís rookie minicamp. Mandatory Credit: D. Ross Cameron-Imagn Images
May 9, 2025; Santa Clara, CA, USA; San Francisco 49ers defensive coordinator Robert Saleh, right, watches the action during the teamís rookie minicamp. Mandatory Credit: D. Ross Cameron-Imagn Images / D. Ross Cameron-Imagn Images
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When the 49ers first hired Robert Saleh in 2017, no one really knew who he was.

He came from the Jacksonville Jaguars, who stunk. He was their linebackers coach. And he didn't seem experienced enough for the job. Eventually, he built the 49ers an elite defense and got hired as head coach of the Jets.

Now, he's coming back to the 49ers as a savior. They've fired two defensive coordinators in the past two seasons and they're coming off a miserable 6-11. They need him to right the ship and infuse the team with much-needed energy and enthusiasm which it lost when Saleh went to the Jets and DeMeco Ryans went to the Texans.

So how has Saleh changed since his first stint as the 49ers defensive coordinator?

"I've gone through the head coaching stuff and you learn a lot going through that," Saleh said. "But I'm happy to be back in this chair where I get to coach a little bit more football and not deal with all the administrative stuff that comes with being a head coach. The perspective, I guess, especially, and that's what was exciting about coming back. Just being in a building where I was once a coordinator and now having head coaching experience, to have that global view. So, there's a lot of empathy for understanding what Kyle Shanahan is going through and trying to help him out best I can. But it's just, I guess more experience.”

TRANSLATION: Part of him is jaded now. During his first stint as 49ers DC, he was innocent and undefeated. Now, he has seen the ugly side of the league. He just worked for a terrible organization where he probably felt he couldn't do any actual coaching. He must be so happy to be back where his career took off.

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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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