{"id":66150,"date":"2025-07-04T22:18:15","date_gmt":"2025-07-04T22:18:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sportnews.azontree.com\/?p=66150"},"modified":"2025-07-04T22:18:15","modified_gmt":"2025-07-04T22:18:15","slug":"former-players-endorse-robert-salehs-49ers-return","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sportnews.azontree.com\/?p=66150","title":{"rendered":"Former Players Endorse Robert Saleh&#8217;s 49ers Return"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"post-featured-container-id\">\n<div id=\"post-featured\">\n<div>\n<figure><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/heavy.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/GettyImages-1196592559.jpg?quality=65&amp;strip=all&amp;w=780\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 820px) 95vw, 780px\" srcset=\"https:\/\/heavy.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/GettyImages-1196592559.jpg?quality=65&amp;strip=all&amp;w=780 780w, https:\/\/heavy.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/GettyImages-1196592559.jpg?quality=15&amp;strip=all&amp;w=1100 1100w, https:\/\/heavy.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/GettyImages-1196592559.jpg?quality=35&amp;strip=all&amp;w=1350 1350w\" alt=\"Former Players Endorse Robert Saleh's 49ers Return\" width=\"780\" height=\"520\" \/><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<p>Getty<\/p>\n<p>Robert Saleh of the San Francisco 49ers<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>The San Francisco 49ers were known as a defensively dominant team early in the Kyle Shanahan years. However, over the past couple of seasons, the team has taken a step back under coordinators Steve Wilks and Nick Sorensen. Luckily, the Niners were able to bring back defensive guru Robert Saleh. Already, former players are speaking about how great a move this will be for San Francisco.<\/p>\n<h2><strong>Player Comments on Robert Saleh<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p>Former 49ers defensive lineman Arik Armstead talked about the importance of Saleh\u2019s leadership and mindset on First Things First recently.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI think he has a tremendous impact. I love Saleh\u2026I look back at the 2020 season. We had a whole bunch of injuries, and with Saleh\u2019s leadership, even though it seemed like our whole team was hurt, we still finished with a top 5 defense. That was the standard that he set. It didn\u2019t matter who was out there; the standard was set that we\u2019re the best defense in the league, and we still finished top 5 in defense regardless of who was out there. So, Saleh is going to bring a lot back to the Bay.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>That 2020 season saw the majority of the team\u2019s starters miss multiple games, but the defense kept the Niners\u2019 playoff hopes alive deep into the season. Saleh\u2019s success with a lack of resources that year ultimately earned him the Jets\u2019 head coaching job the next offseason.<\/p>\n<p>Another defensive player with experience under Saleh, Bryce Huff, spoke about Saleh\u2019s scheme in a positive manner.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI already saw the blueprint. Being in New York with this scheme for three years, and seeing how they utilize each person\u2019s body type to make them play their best, I already see how it\u2019s about to go down this year.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The 49ers were able to swing a trade to bring in Huff this offseason, and he is raring to line up on a Saleh-led defense. The faith in players who have worked under Saleh speaks volumes. There\u2019s a reason the Niners feel so confident in their newly hired coordinator.<\/p>\n<h2><strong>What to Expect From the 49ers Defense in 2025<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p>In Saleh\u2019s previous tenure, the Niners had a boatload of talent on defense. The best example was in 2019 when they boasted the best defense in football. A lot of fans are expecting the team to return to that level of dominance this year. But if we are being realistic, the squad doesn\u2019t have talent on par with that 2019 team.<\/p>\n<p>What fans should be expecting is an aggressive, but somewhat flawed unit on that side of the ball. The defense was far too passive under Sorensen last year. Robert Saleh\u2019s mindset was and is still \u201cAll Gas No Breaks.\u201d Realistically, it will take a couple of years to build up the defensive talent, but Saleh did a fantastic job developing young players in his previous 49ers stint. For the 2025 season, we should expect the unit to fly around, blitz, and create more turnovers. The defense may not be a lockdown unit, but that doesn\u2019t mean they won\u2019t get their fair share of game-altering turnovers this upcoming season. Aggressive football is back on the menu in the Bay.<\/p>\n<p>Matthew Kaimer is a sports writer covering the MLB for heavy.com. He has worked for Heavy since 2023 and has over 5 years experience covering the MLB and San Diego Padres through his social media outlet \u201cFriar Talk.\u201d More about Matthew Kaimer<\/p>\n<h2>More Heavy on 49ers<\/h2>\n<p>Loading more stories<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Robert Saleh is back in as defensive coordinator for the San Francisco 49ers and former players are confident in his return.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":66151,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-66150","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-nfl"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.6 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Former Players Endorse Robert Saleh&#039;s 49ers Return - NEWS USA<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/sportnews.azontree.com\/?p=66150\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Former Players Endorse Robert Saleh&#039;s 49ers Return - 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