Defensive Coordinator Robert Saleh Press Conference

Defensive Coordinator Robert Saleh

Press Conference – October 9, 2025

San Francisco 49ers

What were your initial impressions of just watching tape on S Malik Mustapha and then what has it been like kind of working with him here this week?

“Yeah, his tape from last year was pretty impressive for a rookie. A violent, fast-trigger football player. And you know, we’ve only had a couple days with him now, but he’s made of the right stuff that’s for damn sure.”

Tampa Bay Buccaneers WR Emeka Egbuka, what is it about him or what skillset does he have that’s given him so much success so early in his career?

“He’s powerful for such a young man. Powerful hands. Obviously, he’s playing with a lot of confidence. You give a young guy a lot of confidence and then the sky’s the limit. They’re doing a good job with him too, putting him in positions to be successful, and [Tampa Bay Buccaneers QB] Baker [Mayfield] is playing at a level that’s MVP quality. For him, like I said, big, strong, confident football player.”

There’s no surprise that the pass rush hasn’t been as good without DL Nick Bosa. Has it been at an acceptable level in your estimation?

“We’ll continue to grow. I’m not hitting any panic buttons. There’s a lot of young guys in there still trying to find their way through the NFL. I thought even against the Rams, I felt like [DL Bryce] Huff was just a breath away from ending the game a couple of times there in the fourth quarter. But, can it be better? Absolutely. Could it be worse? Absolutely. But, I’m not at that point where we’re going to panic. We’re going to keep working with these young guys and giving them opportunities to rush to passer and they’ll get better as the year goes.”

There are some numbers that show that DL Mykel Williams might be the fourth-most doubled defensive lineman in the League. How is he handling those doubles and is that what you’re seeing?

“Yeah, he’s doing a great job. From a run perspective, he’s doing a really nice job setting edges. You know, like him and [DL] Alfred [Collins] for example, they’re still trying to find their ways as pass rushers. There are times where Alfred, being the big man that he is, it looks like he’s trying to play finesse and there’s times where Mykel’s trying to run through people and just having that changeup where Mykel might have to play a little finesse and Alfred might run through somebody’s face. They’re learning their style, they’re learning what works for them. The cool thing is that they’ve got tremendous intent. They play with tremendous strain. They’re smart, they’re upbeat. So, like I said, we’re excited to work with them. They’ll continue to get better.”

It’s been a week since the Rams game, but can you go back and just reflect on the fourth-down stop and I guess whatever you told the guys going into that specific play and your view of how it unfolded?

“I’ve been asked, first off, much respect to those guys. I mean, [Los Angeles Rams QB Matt] Stafford, [Los Angeles Rams head coach] Sean McVay and [Los Angeles Rams offensive coordinator] Mike LaFleur, they did an outstanding job from a game plan standpoint, putting themselves in the position they put themselves in. We played it like short yardage, figured call our best short-yardage call. They were going to call their best short-yardage call. And to be honest, that play that Sean ran, I don’t want to speak for him, but based on our calculations, the success rate was ridiculously high when they run that play. Even if you knew it was coming, they could still manage. They ran one earlier in the game where [CB] Upton [Stout] hit it two yards in the backfield and [Los Angeles Rams RB] Kyren Williams or the back still got the first down. So, it was one of those back and forths. I remember the first go around when we called timeout, we had four D-Ends on the field, so we needed to burn a timeout. Then obviously we got our personnel out there playing with the short-yardage mentality. They hard count, call timeout, thought ‘maybe, okay, they’re going to kick the field goal.’ They still sent the group out there. Just talking to [head coach] Kyle [Shanahan], I said, ‘hey, Kyle, based on the look, might need one,’ they broke the huddle and lined up the way they did and said, ‘all right, we’re going to let it ride. See what happens.’ Credit to the guys, they made a heck of a play, triggered, played fast and luckily we came on the right side of it.”

CB Chase Lucas and LB Fred Warner really seemed keyed and ready to respond to that. Is that film study over the course of the week? Were they looking for that indicator?

“It was one of those take a shot deals. Like I said, it was one of their best plays. They’re very, very successful at it. I think it was the third or fourth time we saw it. So, credit to again our guys. They triggered, they took their shot and they ran that play.”

CB Deommodore Lenoir was quoted as saying, “get the C-gap and f it up.” I mean, did they have that?

“When you run that play, the C-gap is everything.”

So, they have that kind of initiative though to recognize that and say you do that?

“Absolutely. These young men are smart. You give them the information, but they still have to film study. They’re still out there feeling those bullets being shot. Especially those young guys to be able to recognize that and trigger and play as fast as they did to create that knockback. Fred playing into that C-gap, creating the initial knockback was critical. Then [S Marques] Sigle just triggering from his depth to finish it off and keep it from falling forward. It was a tremendous team effort.”

The other stop with DL Alfred Collins, RB Christian McCaffrey and Fred Warner, both said that was the best play that they had ever seen. Have you ever seen a guy, let alone a rookie, make a stop like that given the circumstance? Did that make Alfred that much more impressive given his slow start?

“So Alfred, one, that was probably one of the coolest individual efforts I’ve ever seen in a game of football. I mean, he splits a double team, and a cool side note to Alfred is during the evaluation process, we talked about how Alfred gives us something that we haven’t really had since [Indianapolis Colts DL DeForest] Buckner or [Jacksonville Jaguars DT Arik] Armstead. He’s just a guy with tremendous length to be able to make those plays where he is just sprawling out and making a play that most D-Linemen in this League can’t make. It showed up there. The amount of strain and individual effort that it took for him to split the double team and a violent punch out, it was probably one of the coolest and most impressive individual efforts I’ve seen from an interior lineman that close to the goal line. So, that clip will be on teach tapes for a very, very, very long time. I could promise that. But you know, Alfred, he did get off to a slow start in training camp, but that young man, he’s made of the right stuff, his day-in and day-out attitude, his work ethic, his strain, all of it. It’s important to him. He loves this game and he’s going to be a problem. He’ll continue to grow and he’s going to be a big, big problem in this League if he keeps his main the same mindset and the trajectory that he’s going on.”

You had a nightmare a few weeks ago that the Saints were going to light you up. How often do you have football nightmares and what happens in them?

“(Laughter). I have nightmares all the time, man. I think I was up last night. I got home at like midnight and there was like three of my babies sleeping in the bed. And I was like, where the hell am I going to sleep? I have to sneak into the corner of the bed and just stare at the ceiling for a couple hours. There’s always, my mind is always racing and thoughts of trying to help our guys be in the best position possible. Some good ideas, some bad ideas. But, that’s the hard part of being a football coach. I mean, cortisol levels are always high.”

Have any of these nightmares included Egbuka this week?

“(Laughter). A lot of Baker, a lot of their skill guys, their backs, all of them. They do an outstanding job. Baker, like I said, he’s playing at an MVP level. He makes that whole thing go. Credit to all the young guys who are stepping up with all the injuries that they’re having. They’re doing a really nice job putting up a lot of points on a lot of really good defenses.”

Can you think of any other times in your career where your defense has gone on the road and the opposing offense has had to go to a silent count like the Rams did a couple of times on Thursday?

“Yeah, I feel like that’s been the case anytime we go down there. In 2019 it was the coliseum and it felt the same way. It was COVID the next year, but no, not like that. That was my first experience with fans in SoFi. If you guys remember, my only game in SoFi had been the COVID game. It’s pretty cool. We travel. I joke around and say that it’s so expensive to live in the Bay it’s probably cheaper to go to a road game, you know? But (laughter), it’s good to see how much our fans travel. They’re second to none.”

This is on the other side of the line, but QB Adrian Martinez, what have you seen from him and his growth from when you’ve had him at the Jets versus now?

“Yeah, Adrian’s cool man. If anyone gets the chance to spend a couple days with Adrian, you’ll come away impressed. If you really think about it, everywhere he’s gone, he’s won. He won in college, he won in the UFL, he was MVP in the UFL. I’ve always said, all it takes is an opportunity and what you do with your opportunity is what’s going to create your path, if you will. It’s awesome to have Adrian here. You guys know how I feel about Kyle and his staff. I think they’re the best in the world. So, he’s getting an opportunity to be with some of the greatest coaches and in a really cool room with [QB] Mac [Jones] and [QB] Brock [Purdy] and all those guys. So, he’s got a chance to do something cool. If he ever gets his opportunity to step on the field, I think he’s going to do awesome.”

As far as game planning, how much of a resource is Kyle and vice versa? How much do you pitch him with the offensive game plan?

“Pitch in? No, I’d probably ruin it. My conversations with Kyle, we’re always going back and forth talking ball. He’s probably one of the cooler ones to talk to. To have that resource at your disposal and not use it would be silly on my part.”

Back on Alfred really quick. He had mentioned after the game that the play that he got the punch out on was similar to something he saw earlier in the game and he kind of overran it. Just in terms of his mental growth and recognizing things in real time and making adjustments like that, how has he maybe improved?

“All of them. I had a really cool conversation with Upton Stout in practice today. He was asking how he can feel routes when we’re 99. We want 99-9 vision on the quarterback. And he’s like, ‘well, I’m also responsible for these routes. How do I feel them, how do I do that?’ My answer to him was simply, reps. Eventually you get to the point where you recognize formations, you recognize indicators, you recognize from film study on how teams like to attack us as a defense that you just know what the route is so you can play. You’re playing routes without ever having to see them because you feel, you know, you can see the quarterback, you see the mannerisms, and that’s where you get faster and faster and faster. That’s the whole thing with our scheme. People say we don’t do a lot, but what we do, we do it very, very fast and it’s very, very sound. And it’s fast because our guys get to the point where they just know what’s happening to them so they can go faster. That’s where Upton’s at, that’s where Alfred’s at, that’s where all these rookies are. They’re still learning and they need reps to be able to gather information, gather feel of football, start understanding how teams attack us, how teams block us, how teams come at us on a play-in-play-out basis. Once they get to that point of true understanding, that’s when you see their ultimate speed.”