Defensive Coordinator Robert Saleh Press Conference

Defensive Coordinator Robert Saleh

Press Conference – September 30, 2025

San Francisco 49ers

Can you kind of take us through from your comments Thursday and how that may or may not have been misinterpreted by the Jacksonville Jaguars’ head coach?
“No, it’s all good. Whatever happened on Sunday doesn’t change how I feel. In my heart, genuinely, I was trying to give a compliment. I own the fact that I probably used the wrong choice of words, but however you want to word it, I mean, they’re really, really good at putting their players in position to be successful. You know, as coaches, we’re always chasing leverage. They’re trying to have winning leverage. We’re trying to take leverage away. And everyone in the League is trying to find every avenue they can. As a coach watching their tape, I recognize the amount of hours that must be spent to be able to build formations and to find every little indicator they can to give their players a chance to be in a successful position. That’s exhausting. Every team does it. Some do it better than others. And it was my way of acknowledging that these guys are really, really, really good at it. And like I said, Sunday doesn’t change that. I think [Jacksonville Jaguars head coach] Liam’s [Coen] doing a hell of a job. I really do. You can tell that that team is really taking on his personality, and I hope they came out of the game healthy and I wish him the best of luck for throughout the rest of the season. But you know, I wish I could have found a better choice of words, but my intent was always to compliment that football staff.”

Have you reached out in the aftermath to the other one?

“No.”

Was your intent after the game to seek him out and sort of explain to him what you just explained?

“The intent was to say exactly what I just said. That, you know, I think he’s doing a really nice job, which I do. That football team is playing and taking on his personality. They’re playing violently on the offensive line and they’re running backs are running really hard. I think they’re doing a really, really nice job and I just wanted to let him know that I appreciate the way he’s going about his business with his football team.”

You’re universally regarded as a gentle giant. I mean, people that have been around you for a long time have said they’ve never really seen him mad. I mean, does it take quite a bit to get you to say, I don’t know, whatever may have been said?

“I don’t know. Everyone has a trigger, I guess.”

Speaking of sign stealing, how’s Los Angeles Rams head coach Sean McVay doing in that department this year?

“No, you know, it’s the same thing. Those guys, they do, like Sean, [head coach] Kyle [Shanahan], [Minnesota Vikings head coach] Kevin O’Connell, all those guys, they do such a great job through formation identification, building formations and putting their players in position to gain leverage. And you know, it’s all the same thing. These guys are the best in the world at it and that’s why this tree keeps on growing and growing and growing. It’s very, very hard to defend. And Sean’s no exception. These guys are phenomenal. I mean, you think it’s easy, well just defend [Los Angeles Rams WR] Puka [Nacua], well shoot, they’re always finding ways to put Puka in different spots to create leverage. Okay, then you’ve got to deal with [Los Angeles Rams WR] Davante [Adams]. Well, just double both of them. Well then shoot, they’ve got other guys, and they still manage to find ways to put those guys in winning leverage and they do it with great film study and understanding football and understanding defenses and understanding body language and just trying to find every nugget they can to help their team be in great position. And that’s what I was trying to articulate, and obviously I did a poor job with the word. If I said the words ‘film study,’ I don’t think we’re really talking about this, but I used signal stealing and that’s why I was so adamant about legally, I was just struggling for a word. But for Sean, same thing. I mean, these guys are the best in the world at it and that’s why they are where they are.”

To clarify, did you not mean sign stealing? You’re talking about specifically game planning and studying?

“Yeah, it’s just, it’s all in, yeah. I had a bad choice of words.”

On the LB Fred Warner forced fumble, the ball was on the ground. NFL analyst Brian Baldinger said that your defensive linemen were loafing after it. You saw the play. What did you think?

“You could pick out any play and try to pinpoint different things, but we’re always going to strive for tremendous effort. Our D-Line can always be better. I can make an excuse for them on that particular play with the game we were running where we’re running a game to our defensive left, the ball came out to our defensive right, they’re spinning out trying to find and locate the football and their guys had a head-start on it. But, I’ll never question the effort of this football team. Our guys are relentless to the ball. We get 11 hats in the screen about 90-percent of the time. So, if that’s a problem to some, it’s not a problem in here.”

What was your assessment of the pass rush on Sunday?

“I thought Jacksonville did a really nice job kind of negating our ability to rush the passer. I mean, they got rid of the ball elitely fast. They stayed ahead of the chains. The one that the young rookie caught, the 28-yarder on third-and-15, they came out no huddle, caught us in a miscommunication which extended a drive. But overall, I thought we were really good on third down. I thought we did some good things overall, but obviously it wasn’t good enough.”

You weren’t here for seven of these games, but this franchise tied an NFL record with 11 straight games without an interception? It seems like it could be a little flukey, but is there anything that you can point to, like if this is what we’re doing wrong or is it just kind of there are chances but it’s not happening?

“We had great opportunities on Sunday. Fred had a couple of ops. I think [CB] Upton [Stout] made a hell of a play to get an interception. I can see what the ref saw, but there was a hell of a lot more going on throughout the game than just that. They’ll come. We’ve had opportunities there against Seattle, we were that close on a few. Against New Orleans, same thing. Arizona, I think we had a couple of shots at the ball. You know, they’ll come. Sometimes it happens that way.”

You mentioned Davante. How are he and Puka working off each other and how that is a tough challenge for you guys to prepare for?

“Yeah, they’re incredibly tough. Sean, like I said, he’s got two guys and he’ll put them everywhere. He’ll put them together, he’ll put them opposite and they find ways to put them in positions where they’re leveraged. I think it starts with the coaching staff and finding ways to utilize both to make sure that they’re both viable targets on each down. They’re doing a great job. They do a great job at the line of scrimmage getting off and they do a great job at the top of the routes creating separation. They’re big, strong, easy targets for the quarterback to get the ball to and are elitely efficient in terms of when they do get the ball in their hands getting vertical and eating up yards.”

What does LB Nick Martin need to do to get in uniform to play?

“He’s got to dominate special teams first. You know, right now, [LB] Dee Winters is playing at an extremely high level. And the guys after Dee and Fred are outpacing him on special teams. For Nick, he’s going to be fine. He is. He needs reps, but he’s got to earn those reps. And he’s working hard at it. He is. But, you’re talking about guys who have been in this League for a while between [LB Luke Gifford] Giff and [LB] Curtis [Robinson], guys who know the game and know how to play special teams and know how to be pros week-in and week-out. Not that he’s not being a pro, talking about Nick, but they’re just a little bit ahead of him right now in that regard.”