SANTA CLARA, Calif. — In what has become an offseason tradition, San Francisco 49ers coach Kyle Shanahan is again looking for a defensive coordinator.

It’s the fifth time in five years the Niners are conducting such a search after Robert Saleh accepted an offer to become theTennessee Titans head coach last week.

“I definitely don’t like doing this for the fifth year in a row,” Shanahan said. “I really would like to go on vacation, but these D-Coordinators keep making me have my family wait and get mad at me for it.”

Unlike the past two years, Shanahan’s family might not have to wait long. That’s because last offseason the Niners hired Gus Bradley as assistant head coach for defense to help Saleh and get an up-close view of how Shanahan runs things.

It was a move made with an eye toward the likelihood that Saleh could be one and done in his second stint with the 49ers. A possibility that became a reality last week when Saleh landed in Tennessee.

While the 49ers must go through the process, and there’s a possibility that another candidate or two could alter their thinking, Bradley is the clear leader in the clubhouse.

“I wouldn’t say it’s a real wide net,” Shanahan said. “Gus is the obvious one to everyone and is to us too. Gus would be the main internal candidate. We feel very fortunate to get Gus and should feel great about that. But also, we are going to go through the whole process. There are requirements we have to do and stuff that we want to do also. So, hopefully we can get it settled sooner than later.”

In Bradley, 59, the Niners have a path to something they haven’t had at the position in a half-decade: continuity.

Saleh’s first stint in the job lasted from 2017 to 2020 before he left to become the head coach of the New York Jets. By that time, DeMeco Ryans had already established himself as the obvious replacement. Like Saleh, Ryans enjoyed enough success to become the Houston Texans head coach after the 2022 season.

From there, the Niners had a pair of one-and-done stints with Steve Wilks in 2023 and Nick Sorensen in 2024. After moving on from Sorensen last offseason, Shanahan went all in on bringing Saleh back, a risky play as Saleh nearly landed head coaching jobs in Jacksonville and Las Vegas before he eventually returned to the Bay Area.

Last year, Shanahan and the Niners wanted a clear succession option unlike when they hired Wilks and Sorenson. Bradley not only brought 12 years of experience as a defensive coordinator with the Seattle Seahawks, Los Angeles Chargers, Las Vegas Raiders and Indianapolis Colts, but also had four years as the head coach of the Jacksonville Jaguars.

Should he land the coordinator job, Bradley could, in theory, become a head coaching candidate again. But going from Saleh to Bradley should allow a young defense — the 49ers’ average snap-weighted age for the defense was 25.96 years in 2025, third youngest in the league — a chance to stay in a similar scheme with familiar concepts for, at minimum, a second straight year.

That almost certainly means continued use of four or five down linemen with one preferred coverage and others that can be deployed as needed. Shanahan wants the defensive scheme to continue to evolve beyond the simple rush four with Cover 3 behind it that the Niners leaned heavily on in the first couple years of the Shanahan era.

“I think defenses need a little bit of everything,” Shanahan said. “Offensive coaches know how to attack things too much and so you have to up the variables on what they know they’re going to get and that starts with front change, it starts with coverage change and it goes with personnel change. And I think we’ve done more of that each year and we’ll continue to have to do more of that.”

An internal hire like Bradley could also buy San Francisco more time to continue developing someone else, such as K.J. Wright, the defensive quality control coach, to eventually take over the role.

Bradley’s resumé as a defensive coordinator is a bit of a mixed bag with plenty of early success and not as much in his more recent turns. In 2011 and 2012 in Seattle, Bradley coordinated defenses that finished seventh and first in the NFL in scoring defense, respectively. His 2017 unit with the Chargers finished third.

But Bradley’s most recent opportunity in Indianapolis came with more struggles as the Colts finished 28th, 28th and 24th in scoring defense from 2022 to 2024, though that group was 18th in defensive expected points added in that time.

For the 49ers in 2025, Bradley was a sounding board for Saleh and became a player favorite for his pregame motivational speeches.

“He’s the original storyteller,” linebacker Fred Warner said. “For years, I heard Saleh telling those same stories. Even DeMeco kind of adopted those when he was a DC here and then to have Gus come in and start telling the stories. I’m like, ‘Oh, okay. Now you truly see where those stories originated from.’ Just great, positive energy to have around the building and has been doing it for such a long time. He’s just a great piece for us to have.”

Although Bradley is the odds-on favorite for the job, there are other scenarios that could change the calculus.

Shanahan is close with Raheem Morris, the recently fired Falcons head coach, and Morris could be in play for the position if he doesn’t land another top job elsewhere. Morris could also be an option for another job on the Niners staff if not defensive coordinator. Shanahan has also long admired Cleveland defensive coordinator Jim Schwartz. Schwartz is a candidate to be named the Browns head coach, but if he doesn’t get that job and shakes loose, the Niners would at least have to consider making a move.

There’s also the Saleh factor. When he left for the Jets in 2020, Shanahan allowed him to take a handful of coaches with him and Shanahan expects Saleh to ask for some this time, too.

Regardless of how it plays out, Shanahan is confident the Niners will land on someone who can help build on what Saleh helped re-establish in 2025.

“It’s part of having good people around here, so we’ll find another good one,” Shanahan said. “We have a lot of good guys in our building, and we’ll end up figuring it out and being OK.”

Copyright © 2026 ESPN Internet Ventures. All rights reserved.