SOLD ON SALEH
Niner Report|January 2021
Highly regarded DC likely to leave San Francisco after season for higher position
Craig Massei
SOLD ON SALEH

Robert Saleh is such a hot item on the NFL’s prospect list for 2021 head coaches that a bipartisan contingent of state legislators recently sent a letter to Detroit Lions ownership advocating the hiring of San Francisco’s fourth-year defensive coordinator as the Lions next head coach.

Now, that’s hot.

When you’ve got three dozen politicians in your corner, that’s absolutely sizzling. Naturally, with games still to coach and defensive game plans still to devise this year with the 49ers, Saleh downplayed the incident as San Francisco prepared for the final quarter of its 2020 season of struggles that has been highlighted once again by the strong play of Saleh’s defense.

“I don’t know what to make of it or anything like that,” Saleh said after a Week 13 practice. “So, it’s just whatever, I guess, you know.”

Yes, we know. Everybody knows.

Saleh is almost certainly a goner once San Francisco’s season ends after building one of the greatest defenses in franchise history last year and keeping that unit at a high level again this season despite experiencing a steady stream of devastating injuries to several of his most essential defenders.

Somehow, someway, Saleh’s defense has managed to carry a team that has threatened to collapse to the weight of adversity this season on practically a weekly basis. Saleh has received a great deal of credit for the performance of a unit that ranked sixth in the NFL in total defense entering the second week of December — about where San Francisco’s defense has been located in the NFL rankings throughout most of the season.

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