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For the fourth consecutive offseason, 49ers head coach Kyle Shanahan will be searching for a new defensive coordinator.
Less than a year after Robert Saleh returned to Santa Clara to stabilize a young defense, he is reportedly finalizing a deal to become the Tennessee Titans’ head coach.
Shanahan’s pick to replace him will be the 49ers’ fifth coordinator in five seasons, following DeMeco Ryans (2022), Steve Wilks (2023), Nick Sorensen (2024), and Saleh.
While 2025’s mass injury event made a team-wide defensive evaluation difficult — the 49ers finished No. 24 in expected points added (EPA) on that side of the ball — Saleh’s unit did outperform expectations early on, before those injuries took down his best players. For example, the 49ers ranked No. 6 in run defense EPA over the first nine weeks of the season — up from their unacceptable No. 29 finish in 2024. But they tumbled to No. 26 in run defense after Week 9, which saw rookie stalwart Mykel Williams go down with an ACL injury.
Whomever Shanahan picks to replace Saleh will be counted on, above all else, to sustain the resuscitation of the run defense.
An in-house candidate — if Saleh doesn’t bring him along to Tennessee — might be assistant head coach and former defensive coordinator Gus Bradley, Saleh’s boss at previous stops. Assistant linebackers coach K.J. Wright, who once played under both Saleh and Bradley in Seattle, might also get a look. Shanahan, after all, facilitated Ryans’ meteoric rise by elevating him from that same post to defensive coordinator after Saleh left to the New York Jets in 2021.
If Shanahan looks outside the building, Raheem Morris — recently fired from his post as head coach of the Atlanta Falcons — is a logical name to track.
So is a veteran defensive coordinator like Jim Schwartz, who runs a “Wide-9” defensive line approach that would be compatible with respected 49ers’ D-line coach Kris Kocurek. But Schwartz currently remains under contract with the Cleveland Browns even though they recently parted ways with head coach Kevin Stefanski. Schwartz would only become available if Cleveland’s new head coach decides not to retain him.
A strong argument can be made that Shanahan and the 49ers would benefit from the continuity delivered by a veteran defensive coordinator who no longer has big head-coaching ambitions. Chiefs head coach Andy Reid has that in Steve Spagnuolo — and perhaps Shanahan can one day land that in an assistant like Schwartz.
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Shanahan initially hired Saleh as his defensive coordinator when he joined the 49ers in 2017, and the pair worked together for four seasons before Saleh departed to become the head coach of the Jets. After Saleh was fired in the middle of the 2024 season, he interviewed for multiple head coaching positions last offseason before reuniting with Shanahan.
Since Shanahan became the 49ers’ head coach in 2017, he has only hired coordinators who operate a 4-3 defense. He has often cited that his defensive philosophy stems from working as an offensive coordinator under former Falcons coach and current Commanders coach Dan Quinn, who coached the Seahawks’ defense in the early 2010s under Pete Carroll.
Despite serving as the 49ers’ offensive play-caller, Shanahan has played a significant role in ensuring the organization uses early draft picks on defensive linemen. San Francisco has made several miscalculations in the first round of the draft, but the 49ers have committed to the process and used their top overall selection on defensive linemen in five of the team’s nine drafts under Shanahan and Lynch.
In 2025, with Saleh back aboard, the 49ers restocked their defensive talent pool by selecting defensive players with each of their first five picks.
Many of those players — the first-rounder Williams, second-rounder Alfred Collins, and third-rounder Upton Stout — are projected to play pivotal roles moving forward regardless of who is hired as the defensive coordinator.
With Nick Bosa and Fred Warner set to return from major injuries next season and the 49ers likely to invest in upgrades along the defensive line and in the secondary, the next coordinator should walk into a favorable situation.
Key reinforcements coupled with additional investment will also lead to sky-high expectations, which proved difficult for Wilks and Sorensen to handle.
Wilks’ 2023 unit finished third in the NFL in points allowed and helped the 49ers hold Patrick Mahomes and the Kansas City Chiefs to 19 points in regulation in Super Bowl 58, but Shanahan fired him after one season as the pair didn’t see eye-to-eye on scheme.
Sorensen’s tenure marked a low point for the 49ers’ defense under Shanahan, as the team finished 29th in points allowed in 2024 despite having Bosa and Warner available for most of the season.
Saleh infused the defense with new energy in 2025, but the build is far from complete — especially since a healthier roster is needed to see it through. That will be the next defensive coordinator’s job, though.