The San Francisco 49ers will see a defensive coordinator change for the fifth straight season, as Robert Saleh accepted a job to be the next head coach of the Tennessee Titans. Saleh’s departure came one
year after he joined the 49ers to be their replacement for former defensive coordinator Nick Sorensen, but it was likely that he’d catch traction in the head coaching market relatively soon.
Fielding several interviews for head coaching vacancies, Saleh was a finalist for the Titans job and earned the opportunity after interviewing in-person on Monday. Now, Kyle Shanahan and the 49ers will need to find another defensive coordinator, and perhaps he’s already in the building.
After hiring Saleh last year, the 49ers also hired former NFL head coach and longtime defensive coordinator Gus Bradley, who had most recently been the defensive coordinator of the Indianapolis Colts from 2022-24. Bradley was given the title of assistant head coach of the defense, and many saw him as the potential successor when Saleh eventually got his next head coaching job.
Well, that time could be now, and one defensive player gave praise to Bradley at San Francisco’s end-of-season interviews, noting his impact in the defense’s best area: the red zone.
“Gus is great,” Lenoir said of Bradley. “Gus helped us a lot, just figuring out stuff in the strike zone areas. He was in charge of the red zone. He has so much knowledge for us.”
Not only did Bradley have an impact on the field, but defensive coordinator Fred Warner also noted his impact off the field, motivating the team with pregame stories, which he passed down to assistants like Saleh and DeMeco Ryans back when they worked for Bradley.
“He’s the original storyteller,” Warner said of Bradley. “For years, I heard [Robert] Saleh telling those same stories. Even DeMeco [Ryans] kind of adapted those when he was a DC here. And then, to have Gus come in and start telling the stories, now you truly see where those stories originated from.”
This year, the 49ers defense didn’t perform up to expectations because injuries shattered the team’s top personnel, handicapping the coaching staff’s ability to scheme as they’d like. The 49ers were 21st in rush yards per attempt, 25th in passing yards allowed per game, and 32nd in sack percentage. But they were 12th in red zone touchdown percentage allowed, which was one of, if not the defense’s biggest strength in 2025.
As they went on a six-game winning streak heading into Week 18, the 49ers defense was really picking things up in the red zone. In that final regular-season game, they even held Seattle to zero touchdowns on three red zone opportunities. So there were definitely some positives there, despite the struggles on defense overall.
It will certainly be hard to replace Saleh, who injected energy into the team and was a top-tier defensive coordinator. But it seems like the 49ers planned for this exact scenario with the hire of Bradley, who seems like the inside favorite for the job in 2026.
