2025 OFFSEASON

[thesack12]

Not doing backflips over the Saleh hire but I've already stated why many times but there are definite pros in his hiring.

For one it's a seamless transition. He's familiar with the area, most of the coaches, and while the roster is almost all new to him it's the same exact scheme so it's not like he has to teach the basics and expectations of the scheme and can focus on the adjustments.

Another one is that he can be the head coach of the defense, which has sorely been lacking since Ryan left to be the Texans HC. Kyle can trust him with the defensive side while Kyle focuses on the offensive side of things.

The defense feeds off his energy so I think that will provide a boost to the morale and get guys more amped to play well.

More importantly he'll clean up a lot of the fundamentals and a lot of the execution issues that plagued this team last season. Maybe I'm misremembering things but I do remember our defenses being strong tacklers and executing well under his tenure.

He'll also be counted on to make adjustments and while I don't love the scheme we shouldn't see anymore of the crap where offenses motioning to a bunch formation completely breaks our coverage. I fully expect him to have the ability to adjust to that.

And if he does get hired as a HC well at least we'll get comp picks from it.

Completely agree, especially about the energy feeding statement.

I was not a fan of Wilks' expressionless, emotionless, stoic style. Also did not like Sorenson's monitone demeanor. As you mentioned this defense has long since feeded off energy, and there was no energy injected into them from the sideline the last 2 seasons. Ryans was quite outwordly passionate, and Saleh was full of fire. Will be nice to see some enthusiasm back on the defesnive sidelines, and I fully expect that carry over on the field.

[thesack12]

I know tweaks and adjustments are made after every season but I do firmly believe we need adjustments on both sides of the ball beyond what you typically do in an offseason.

It's not just Shanahan but look across the league and the teams that run that Shanahan style offense generally all had down years and struggled compared to the previous season. So it's clear that defenses around the league last offseason made it an emphasis to figure out how to defeat it.

So I do think a significant autopsy of the offense is needed this offseason to get a bead on what defenses figured out and how to counter the counter. That's why I'm kinda hopeful that Shanahan replaces Klint's passing game specialist spot with someone with some fresh ideas. Because for the most part I think the running game is fine we just need better linemen to execute it but the passing attack leaves a lot to be desired with its design.

Defensively we're obviously not going to flip a switch and throw blitzes out there like crazy but I do think we need to crank the dial up a bit and we really got to work on execution and being creative when we do blitz because last season when we did blitz is was horrid. The timing of the blitzers was terrible and all they pretty much did was run straight into a guy that blocked them. It was clear blitzing was something we barely practiced.

Also would like to see them run more man and less zone. I know our pass rush wasn't amazing but I do think a large problem was the QB having no problems knowing exactly where to go with the ball and despite having 7 in coverage easily finding the wide open guy in a second for an easy 1st down conversion. It's not that there weren't times coverage was tight but for the amount of times we dropped 7 in coverage we did not see the QB sit in the pocket and pat the ball nearly enough.

Also agree with you here.

To piggy back off of you a bit here, another + side effect of bringing back Saleh is it will allow Kyle more time and attention to concentrate on doing that autopsy on his offense during the offseason.

Had another 1st time DC, or another outside hire been made at DC. Kyle would have felt the need to govern over the defensive side of things WAY more than he will with Saleh captaining that ship.

[CrimsonCrew]

Hated the process, but the result seems to have worked out. Of course, if Saleh leaves again next year, and after a playoff run, we could be back to square one. But that's a future problem, and at least we'd get two third-round picks to soften the blow. For now, glad we have a competent coordinator back.

Agree with the comments that people would like to see some more substantial changes. Though in Shanahan's case, I wouldn't mind seeing some reversion. We really went away from the play action and screen game this season, and I'd like to see us get back to more of that. Our OL and Purdy both seem to struggle in the pure dropback game (one may be heavily influenced by the other).

Don't love that Shanahan is so insular in terms of the coaching pool he's willing to work with. It really limits our options.

[CrimsonCrew]

Read on Twitter

Unlike the last 2 offseasons, I'm pretty stoked about the DC hire this time around.

Of course, there is no guarantee that SF's defense will return to upper echelon form under Saleh. However, he has obviously proven that he can be a very high level DC in this league. I also think we will see a very hungry Robert Saleh.

I also never really got the logic behind people saying they shouldn't go after Saleh because he might leave for another HC gig in a year or 2. Well in order for that to happen, SF's defense will have returned to being top notch unit next year, year after, etc....

Ummmmm, isn't that what we all want to see?

Re: this, not a reason not to go after him. Any good hire who gets our defense back to the upper levels would be a HC candidate. However, it is a reason why we should have been interviewing more candidates this year.

[thesack12]

Read on Twitter

Unlike the last 2 offseasons, I'm pretty stoked about the DC hire this time around.

Of course, there is no guarantee that SF's defense will return to upper echelon form under Saleh. However, he has obviously proven that he can be a very high level DC in this league. I also think we will see a very hungry Robert Saleh.

I also never really got the logic behind people saying they shouldn't go after Saleh because he might leave for another HC gig in a year or 2. Well in order for that to happen, SF's defense will have returned to being top notch unit next year, year after, etc....

Ummmmm, isn't that what we all want to see?

Re: this, not a reason not to go after him. Any good hire who gets our defense back to the upper levels would be a HC candidate. However, it is a reason why we should have been interviewing more candidates this year.

Sure, casting a wide net during coaching searches is usually beneficial.

That said, good team's coordinators always have the tendency to get poached. Saleh and Ryans were both 1st time DC's when SF hired them, and they both eventually got poached away.

The only way to apparently get around keeping good coordinators long term, is to find the next Steve Spagnuolo (a guy who consistently fields high end units on a team that competes every single year and apparently doesn't have much desire to get another HC gig).

Short of uncovering that type of guy (which certainly won't be easy) if SF's defense returns to elite levels and SF re-emerges as a legit contender, then whomever they hired as the DC would be susceptible to leaving for an HC job.

Wilks and really even Saleh potentially fit that Spags mold. Coordinators with good track records, who were failed HC's. While its small, there is a chance that Saleh becomes Kyle's Spags.

[Pattersonca65]

Read on Twitter

Unlike the last 2 offseasons, I'm pretty stoked about the DC hire this time around.

Of course, there is no guarantee that SF's defense will return to upper echelon form under Saleh. However, he has obviously proven that he can be a very high level DC in this league. I also think we will see a very hungry Robert Saleh.

I also never really got the logic behind people saying they shouldn't go after Saleh because he might leave for another HC gig in a year or 2. Well in order for that to happen, SF's defense will have returned to being top notch unit next year, year after, etc....

Ummmmm, isn't that what we all want to see?

Re: this, not a reason not to go after him. Any good hire who gets our defense back to the upper levels would be a HC candidate. However, it is a reason why we should have been interviewing more candidates this year.

Sure, casting a wide net during coaching searches is usually beneficial.

That said, good team's coordinators always have the tendency to get poached. Saleh and Ryans were both 1st time DC's when SF hired them, and they both eventually got poached away.

The only way to apparently get around keeping good coordinators long term, is to find the next Steve Spagnuolo (a guy who consistently fields high end units on a team that competes every single year and apparently doesn't have much desire to get another HC gig).

Short of uncovering that type of guy (which certainly won't be easy) if SF's defense returns to elite levels and SF re-emerges as a legit contender, then whomever they hired as the DC would be susceptible to leaving for an HC job.

Wilks and really even Saleh potentially fit that Spags mold. Coordinators with good track records, who were failed HC's. While its small, there is a chance that Saleh becomes Kyle's Spags.

I read an interview from Spags. He really wants to be a HC again but only if a good situation comes up. Feels like he is going to be picky with his next choice which Saleh might have ended up under Baalke. Saleh needs to be a bit more picky

[clyde21]

the fact that Saleh already had several interviews makes me believe that if he we have top 5 defense next year under him again he'll most likely get poached.

the next Spags will probably be someone like Dennis Allen, who could have several years leading a top defense and won't get any interviews to be a HC.

[Jikkle]

the fact that Saleh already had several interviews makes me believe that if he we have top 5 defense next year under him again he'll most likely get poached.

the next Spags will probably be someone like Dennis Allen, who could have several years leading a top defense and won't get any interviews to be a HC.

Hard to measure just how interested teams were given that interviewing him did fulfill part of the Rooney rule. I don't think he was a token Rooney rule interview but I don't know if he was ever close to landing any of these jobs either.

I do expect he'll land another gig as an HC if he restores the 9ers into a top defense again but it might be 2 to 3 seasons rather then after this season.

Doesn't hurt that it seems he's not picky to what team he becomes a HC of. Which doesn't make a whole lot of sense to me since you usually get two failures as a head coach before you're basically a lifelong coordinator so you would think he'd be extremely careful his next go around.

[CrimsonCrew]

Read on Twitter

Unlike the last 2 offseasons, I'm pretty stoked about the DC hire this time around.

Of course, there is no guarantee that SF's defense will return to upper echelon form under Saleh. However, he has obviously proven that he can be a very high level DC in this league. I also think we will see a very hungry Robert Saleh.

I also never really got the logic behind people saying they shouldn't go after Saleh because he might leave for another HC gig in a year or 2. Well in order for that to happen, SF's defense will have returned to being top notch unit next year, year after, etc....

Ummmmm, isn't that what we all want to see?

Re: this, not a reason not to go after him. Any good hire who gets our defense back to the upper levels would be a HC candidate. However, it is a reason why we should have been interviewing more candidates this year.

Sure, casting a wide net during coaching searches is usually beneficial.

That said, good team's coordinators always have the tendency to get poached. Saleh and Ryans were both 1st time DC's when SF hired them, and they both eventually got poached away.

The only way to apparently get around keeping good coordinators long term, is to find the next Steve Spagnuolo (a guy who consistently fields high end units on a team that competes every single year and apparently doesn't have much desire to get another HC gig).

Short of uncovering that type of guy (which certainly won't be easy) if SF's defense returns to elite levels and SF re-emerges as a legit contender, then whomever they hired as the DC would be susceptible to leaving for an HC job.

Wilks and really even Saleh potentially fit that Spags mold. Coordinators with good track records, who were failed HC's. While its small, there is a chance that Saleh becomes Kyle's Spags.

Yeah, the NFL coaching pool is so insular and nepotistic that guys tend to get second, third, and even fourth chances a lot. I remember back in the Nolan days that I was really happy when they got Norv Turner at OC to provide some stability for Alex Smith as Turner had failed twice as a HC and didn't seem likely to get another chance. Of course, he got hired as a HC the following year - and busted again. That said, that's one situation that can work in the long term: a talented coordinator who just isn't cut out to be a HC. Spags and Fangio come to mind.

[Pattersonca65]

Re: this, not a reason not to go after him. Any good hire who gets our defense back to the upper levels would be a HC candidate. However, it is a reason why we should have been interviewing more candidates this year.

Sure, casting a wide net during coaching searches is usually beneficial.

That said, good team's coordinators always have the tendency to get poached. Saleh and Ryans were both 1st time DC's when SF hired them, and they both eventually got poached away.

The only way to apparently get around keeping good coordinators long term, is to find the next Steve Spagnuolo (a guy who consistently fields high end units on a team that competes every single year and apparently doesn't have much desire to get another HC gig).

Short of uncovering that type of guy (which certainly won't be easy) if SF's defense returns to elite levels and SF re-emerges as a legit contender, then whomever they hired as the DC would be susceptible to leaving for an HC job.

Wilks and really even Saleh potentially fit that Spags mold. Coordinators with good track records, who were failed HC's. While its small, there is a chance that Saleh becomes Kyle's Spags.

Yeah, the NFL coaching pool is so insular and nepotistic that guys tend to get second, third, and even fourth chances a lot. I remember back in the Nolan days that I was really happy when they got Norv Turner at OC to provide some stability for Alex Smith as Turner had failed twice as a HC and didn't seem likely to get another chance. Of course, he got hired as a HC the following year - and busted again. That said, that's one situation that can work in the long term: a talented coordinator who just isn't cut out to be a HC. Spags and Fangio come to mind.

As mentioned earlier Spags has said he really wants to be a HC again but the circumstances have to be right and he wont accept a bad situation. It is possible he will be gone from KC at some point although limiting " bad " situations or fits surely makt harder and could take longer

[Jikkle]

https://www.sportskeeda.com/nfl/news-insider-notes-shrine-bowl-why-cowboys-hired-brian-schottenheimer-jaguars-next-gm-49ers-draft-plans

A big priority will be to add speed on defense through the draft and free agency.

I'm guessing that means Hufanga won't be resigned and Brown might not having a starting job next season. It might mean they make a push for Greenlaw to be resigned as well.

What's music to my ears though is hearing there is a belief that they will be more exotic and have some new wrinkles and surprises with the defense.

It was plain as day to see that we were way too basic and opposing offenses had little trouble diagnosing, exploiting, and beating our defense.

[clyde21]

lol Spags is flexing nuts now after some success but for years no one wanted him as a HC. the dude is 65 years old, the idea that he's just waiting around for the 'perfect opportunity' to take a HC gig is nonsense, whatever he himself says.

[clyde21]

Re: this, not a reason not to go after him. Any good hire who gets our defense back to the upper levels would be a HC candidate. However, it is a reason why we should have been interviewing more candidates this year.

Sure, casting a wide net during coaching searches is usually beneficial.

That said, good team's coordinators always have the tendency to get poached. Saleh and Ryans were both 1st time DC's when SF hired them, and they both eventually got poached away.

The only way to apparently get around keeping good coordinators long term, is to find the next Steve Spagnuolo (a guy who consistently fields high end units on a team that competes every single year and apparently doesn't have much desire to get another HC gig).

Short of uncovering that type of guy (which certainly won't be easy) if SF's defense returns to elite levels and SF re-emerges as a legit contender, then whomever they hired as the DC would be susceptible to leaving for an HC job.

Wilks and really even Saleh potentially fit that Spags mold. Coordinators with good track records, who were failed HC's. While its small, there is a chance that Saleh becomes Kyle's Spags.

Yeah, the NFL coaching pool is so insular and nepotistic that guys tend to get second, third, and even fourth chances a lot. I remember back in the Nolan days that I was really happy when they got Norv Turner at OC to provide some stability for Alex Smith as Turner had failed twice as a HC and didn't seem likely to get another chance. Of course, he got hired as a HC the following year - and busted again. That said, that's one situation that can work in the long term: a talented coordinator who just isn't cut out to be a HC. Spags and Fangio come to mind.

Dick LeBeau for the Steelers was the perfect example for that.

Dennis Allen is in that mold, doubt he'll get another HC gig for a while if ever. Lou Anarumo probably won't be tapped for HC for a while too.

[49er4life1979]

Its being reported from the NIners coaches at Shrine Bowl that Saleh is looking for a more exotic defense in 2025 and wants more speed, specifically in the secondary. That may mean Hufanga is gone as he is not the fastest, only ran a 4.6 40 and that was before his injury. More 5 man fronts and man defense? Love it. Also the Niners just hired Brant Boyer from the Jets as ST coordinator. Good hire, he worked under Saleh with the Jets.

[Pattersonca65]

49ers hire ex Jets special teams coach Brandt Boyer. Apparently special teams was an issue until the last few months and Shanny apparently wanted someone that could come up with their own game plans. Just hope at least not having sp teams ne a detriment

[Samurai]

49ers hire ex Jets special teams coach Brandt Boyer. Apparently special teams was an issue until the last few months and Shanny apparently wanted someone that could come up with their own game plans. Just hope at least not having sp teams ne a detriment

Hope he can turn things around. Statmuse ranked the Jets special teams as five spots worse than the Niners this past season, but I'm not sure how much of that is on the coach and how much is due to injuries/player mistakes or how to make sense out of ST stats. I do know that Moody had the 2nd worse FG% among all full-time kickers, Wish has battled injuries and we didn't get our money's worth on him last season, we haven't returned a kickoff for a TD since 2018 or a punt return for a TD since 2011, allowed a blocked punt and got embarrassed on a fake punt so Boyer will have his work cut out for him.

[CrimsonCrew]

49ers hire ex Jets special teams coach Brandt Boyer. Apparently special teams was an issue until the last few months and Shanny apparently wanted someone that could come up with their own game plans. Just hope at least not having sp teams ne a detriment

Hope he can turn things around. Statmuse ranked the Jets special teams as five spots worse than the Niners this past season, but I'm not sure how much of that is on the coach and how much is due to injuries/player mistakes or how to make sense out of ST stats. I do know that Moody had the 2nd worse FG% among all full-time kickers, Wish has battled injuries and we didn't get our money's worth on him last season, we haven't returned a kickoff for a TD since 2018 or a punt return for a TD since 2011, allowed a blocked punt and got embarrassed on a fake punt so Boyer will have his work cut out for him.

I hated the Moody pick, and that was when I expected him to be a good kicker. What we've seen lately is...dispiriting. But I watched a YouTube video that looked into some of his kicking issues, and it did appear that his holder toward the end of the year - Wishnewski's injury replacement Pat O'Donnell - was not doing a good job of holding. He regularly had the ball at a weird angle, that could have been the cause of some of Wish's kicking woes. Still, just not sure how that guy returns after what we saw at the end of last year.

[Pattersonca65]

49ers hire ex Jets special teams coach Brandt Boyer. Apparently special teams was an issue until the last few months and Shanny apparently wanted someone that could come up with their own game plans. Just hope at least not having sp teams ne a detriment

Hope he can turn things around. Statmuse ranked the Jets special teams as five spots worse than the Niners this past season, but I'm not sure how much of that is on the coach and how much is due to injuries/player mistakes or how to make sense out of ST stats. I do know that Moody had the 2nd worse FG% among all full-time kickers, Wish has battled injuries and we didn't get our money's worth on him last season, we haven't returned a kickoff for a TD since 2018 or a punt return for a TD since 2011, allowed a blocked punt and got embarrassed on a fake punt so Boyer will have his work cut out for him.

I hated the Moody pick, and that was when I expected him to be a good kicker. What we've seen lately is...dispiriting. But I watched a YouTube video that looked into some of his kicking issues, and it did appear that his holder toward the end of the year - Wishnewski's injury replacement Pat O'Donnell - was not doing a good job of holding. He regularly had the ball at a weird angle, that could have been the cause of some of Wish's kicking woes. Still, just not sure how that guy returns after what we saw at the end of last year.

Supposedlly their special teams got.much better as the year went on

[Jikkle]

Boyer has a pretty solid resume and he's survived the Jets job through various coaches so that tells me he probably knows what he's doing.

The bottleneck with Special Teams is going to be Shanahan. He's always treated it as unimportant and his conservative nature means we'll probably be very vanilla with it very rarely doing any sort of fake punts or anything creative with the unit.

So if Shanahan carries on as usual with how he treats the Special Teams we probably can only expect an average unit at best.

[Jikkle]

49ers hire ex Jets special teams coach Brandt Boyer. Apparently special teams was an issue until the last few months and Shanny apparently wanted someone that could come up with their own game plans. Just hope at least not having sp teams ne a detriment

Hope he can turn things around. Statmuse ranked the Jets special teams as five spots worse than the Niners this past season, but I'm not sure how much of that is on the coach and how much is due to injuries/player mistakes or how to make sense out of ST stats. I do know that Moody had the 2nd worse FG% among all full-time kickers, Wish has battled injuries and we didn't get our money's worth on him last season, we haven't returned a kickoff for a TD since 2018 or a punt return for a TD since 2011, allowed a blocked punt and got embarrassed on a fake punt so Boyer will have his work cut out for him.

I hated the Moody pick, and that was when I expected him to be a good kicker. What we've seen lately is...dispiriting. But I watched a YouTube video that looked into some of his kicking issues, and it did appear that his holder toward the end of the year - Wishnewski's injury replacement Pat O'Donnell - was not doing a good job of holding. He regularly had the ball at a weird angle, that could have been the cause of some of Wish's kicking woes. Still, just not sure how that guy returns after what we saw at the end of last year.

He definitely can't return without any sort of legitimate competition.

I can buy an argument that he's under contract so might as well bring him in camp to see if he works out his kinks and just have an open competition for the spot. I'll play devil's advocate but maybe he never fully got over his ankle injury and his holder wasn't the best at setting him up.

Personally I think we should move on because even before this season he wasn't as clutch as you liked him to be and we're always going to be nervous everytime he goes out and kicks.