They now have future-proofed the position. For now.
Robert Saleh or Gus Bradley? That sounds like a more adequate post for who should be the next San Francisco 49ers defensive coordinator. The 49ers now have both—Saleh as DC and Bradley as a defensive assistant.
This isn’t the first time the 49ers—or head coach Kyle Shanahan—pursued Bradley. In 2017, before Kyle Shanahan was hired (but unofficially had the job due to NFL rules preventing anything until after that year’s Super Bowl), Bradley was linked as DC with a huge offer to entice him. Unfortunately, he wasn’t interested when the 49ers made it clear they were going with Shanahan and not Tom Cable. Robert Saleh eventually got the role, and you know the rest.
Now, the 49ers have two respected defensive coaches, effectively upgrading one of the most disappointing areas in 2024. Around this time last year, the 49ers were moving on from Steve Wilks. They promoted Nick Sorensen in-house and also hired Brandon Staley as an assistant. While not official, the Staley hire was widely believed to be an insurance plan in case Sorensen couldn’t do the job as a first-year coordinator. One is out, and the other is soon to follow.
Now the 49ers have Saleh back and Bradley helping out. Bradley knows how to dial a blitz, something the 49ers were quite gunshy with last season. Some may say the 49ers brought in a mediocre coach in Bradley. Still, if you look at his defenses over the past few years (yes, years, Bradley has multiple years as a defensive coordinator in the NFL—Staley had only one in the league), there’s nothing awful. His head coaching tenure with the Jacksonville Jaguars was forgettable, but at least he didn’t let the Raiders lay 60 points on his teams.
There’s also something he can offer should Saleh depart next year: a succession plan. One has to think that the 49ers have a young coach with a bright future in the vein of DeMeco Ryans, but this allows more time if that person isn’t ready. If Saleh leaves in 2026, Bradley can step right in, and the 49ers won’t miss a beat. If Saleh stays for another year and Bradley leaves, The 49ers have two years with Saleh and whoever is ready to fill the role if Saleh doesn’t remain for a third year.
Not only does this pair of hires upgrade the 49ers’ defensive coaching, but it probably solves the issue of Kyle Shanahan not getting involved with defensive gameplans, and it also prevents the future problems of poaching from happening. Said poaching could be even back-breaking if the 49ers are in a postseason run and all possible candidates are snapped up before they can start the interview process.
Of course, it’s impossible to predict whether this will work. The 49ers could have another disappointing season, leaving more work to be done. Everything could blow up again because of the 49ers.
But right now, for all intents and purposes, the 49ers have upgraded the defensive coaching positions. They didn’t just go in another direction; they have placed a proven defensive coordinator at the top and another decent defensive mind to assist and possibly take over in a year or two.
With a coach like Kyle Shanahan who has had issues securing a defensive coordinator (which has become somewhat a running gag), things went the 49ers’ way on the defensive side of the ball.