The 49ers CEO wanted to make sure the defense could be solidified
The 49ers hired Robert Saleh as defensive coordinator and gave him a whole lot of cash—that much we knew. What we didn’t know was that the team’s CEO was personally involved in getting the check written.
In his recent mailbag with The San Francisco Standard, Tim Kawakami mentioned the Robert Saleh hire from last week, and it turns out the 49ers CEO was more involved with this hire than any other head coach in this era.
One difference this time, I’ve heard: More so than with any other assistant-coach decision of this era, Jed York was personally involved in this move — agreeing to the top-of-the-market salary for Saleh and, at some point, trying to solidify staffing into the future. Basically, I think the 49ers’ leaders — from York to Kyle Shanahan to John Lynch — are trying to set this up for Saleh to stay with the 49ers for more than one year. At the very least, they’ll make it easy for Saleh to be very picky about the place and timing of his next job.
OK, there are a few things to unpack from this.
First, this is pretty much in line with what has been reported during the 49ers’ courtship of Saleh. They wanted to make him the highest-paid defensive coordinator in the league. What we didn’t know was how involved York was in this. It’s obviously his bank account, but “personally” involved is interesting.
If Saleh wants to be a head coach, there’s not much the 49ers are going to be able to do to stop him besides making him look at the gravy train he’d be leaving behind, which is what York did. It appears the 49ers are trying to do with Saleh what the New England Patriots did with Josh McDaniels while Bill Belichick/Tom Brady were there; make it very hard to leave the team. When you factor in family, moving, etc., it is even more difficult for another team to pry Saleh away after one year. Not saying it won’t happen, but Saleh doesn’t need to take the first head coaching job offered to him in 2026.
If the 49ers defense does well in 2025, Saleh will be a name to watch, but he also will have a ton of leverage in what jobs he chooses to pursue. So if a dumpster fire of an organization decides to come to him with an offer, they will have to offer a lot more than a vacant seat.
The York involvement also indicates something else: if Shanahan was truly on the hot seat, like some may want you to believe, do you think the 49ers’ CEO would even be involved in securing this guy? Let alone making Saleh the highest-paid defensive coordinator in the league? There were mumblings that York didn’t like how much money the 49ers spent on the Brandon Aiyuk deal, which was probably blown out of proportion more than anything.
York knows winning isn’t cheap. During the entire Jim Harbaugh fiasco, York was reportedly not happy with how much Harbaugh’s staff cost the 49ers. This lesson proved costly when Jim Tomsula came in. It’s already hard to convince a coordinator to come to a team where the head coach didn’t pay his dues (in Tomsula’s case, not being a defensive coordinator), but not offering them top-of-the-line salaries means that Tomsula’s staff was…well…Geep Chryst as offensive coordinator and Eric Mangini as defensive coordinator.
Given all the money spent on Shanahan, players, and now Saleh, it’s obvious York has learned his lesson. If there was any sort of friction between him and Shanahan, I do find it hard to believe he’d pony up all that money for a defensive coordinator with intentions to keep him around longer than a season.