Defensive Coordinator Robert Saleh Press Conference

Defensive Coordinator Robert Saleh

Press Conference – December 24, 2025

San Francisco 49ers

With the Colts scoring twice in their first two times, what’s going through your mind at that point? How do you adjust?

“I thought the players, staff, everybody did a really good job just trying to figure out exactly what was different than what we had prepared for. And we made the necessary adjustments, players adjusted the way they needed to. I thought we did a really, really good job from that point on handling everything they were doing.”

They said in the broadcast you didn’t blitz Indianapolis Colts QB Philip Rivers in the first half. After halftime, obviously you did blitz him a little on the second half. Did you realize that you were going to have to mix it up a little with him?

“No. It wasn’t so much that trying to mix up because we did give up an explosive on him when we did blitz, but I was just trying to be timely with it. Really just wanted to get to his feet to see if we could get him off his timing because he’s one of the greatest of all time, but even the greatest of all time after not playing for a while, the timing’s not going to be there unless you’re able to play seven on seven. Which I think he was able to do in the first couple of drives. But yeah, there was a couple of pressures in there just to try to throw off timing just a little bit.”

TE George Kittle after the game was talking about the impact of assistant head coach of defense Gus Bradley, which seemed kind of odd for an offensive guy to be talking about the stories he tells and such. Head coach Kyle Shanahan just addressed it. Can you kind of describe the impact Gus has had on the building itself and with you and the defense?

“Yeah. Gus, as everyone knows, he’s like a second pops to me. He lights up a room. He unifies buildings, he unifies people. He’s an ultimate energy giver and people gravitate to his personality, his infectious smile. I’ve always said the greatest compliment a person can ever receive is when someone says that when you’re around that person, you want to be a better person. And that’s Gus, he makes you want to be a better person. I think if you’re any kind of a human when you’re around him, you’ll feel that.”

Your two rookie defensive tackles got sacks and got on the board the other night. Where are they right now as kind of past the point where they hit a rookie wall, but maybe it seems like they’re picking up a bit?

“Yeah, they’re doing a really nice job. It was awesome to see it, awesome for them to get the production because they’ve been working hard at it, but they’re still young. They’re only going to get better. Really excited for [DL] C.J. [West]. [DL] Alfred’s [Collins] going to be a stud, especially when both of those young men get offseasons underneath them, have a good offseason. I think they’re only going to get better, but it’s good to see them surging, especially as rookies here in the second half of the year.”

Chicago Bears QB Caleb Williams is on the opposite end of the quarterback spectrum from Philip. He’s a guy who wants to get outside of the pocket and hold the ball. What kind of challenges does he present?

“A lot of them. His arm talent is elite. The guy can rip the ball. He can make every throw. It feels like when he starts scrambling, he gets more accurate. He is really, really dangerous when he leaves the pocket and he’s on the run, they’re really tied into their scramble rules, hard to bring down in the pocket. He does a great job escaping the pocket, he’s got great speed to scramble. Their boot system is one of the better ones in football. They’re doing a really good job with him. I think he’s improved tremendously from a year ago. When you just look at the tape from a year ago, he’s greatly improved. So, credit to [Chicago Bears head coach] Ben [Johnson] and his staff and the way they’ve approached it this year.”

Speaking of Ben, how good of a play caller is he?

“Oh, he’s up there with all the best of them. You’ve got Kyle, [Los Angeles Rams head coach] Sean [McVay] and [Green Bay Packers head coach] Matt LaFleur and all the guys that come from this tree. And then Ben, he’s pretty freaking good.”

Having gone through the process a couple of times before already, do you find it easy to compartmentalize and not even concern yourself with whatever head coaching opportunities there might be after the season?

“Oh, yeah. We’ve got playoffs, hoping that we play five more home games.”

What about your run defense on Monday night can carry over into these final two games and into the postseason? What did you like about what you guys were able to do in that aspect?

“For sure. I felt like the deliberateness at which we attacked the run game was really good. I thought the D-Line played their best game with regards to defending the run and closing gaps and playing with their hands and creating extension and getting off blocks. It was all around a really good effort from everybody. Our safeties were running the alley the way they needed to. We were tackling really well. [Indianapolis Colts RB Jonathan Taylor] J.T. is not an easy back to tackle. Our corners showed up big time in crack replace. There were a couple of occasions where he could’ve sprung out to the to the outside. I think [CB Darrell] Luter [Jr.] saved, I think two touchdowns. So, it was a collective effort and it’s something that if you want to be a great run defense, it’s got to show up every week.”

LB Dee Winters had that pick-six, but Philip Rivers went up to him after the game and said, ‘did you pick up my check?’ And he said, ‘yeah.’ Did you see that? At halftime they were kind of running a lot of the Orlando concept earlier in the first half and did you tell Dee Winters?

“You can’t necessarily hear it from the sideline. I’m glad it kind of happened. We’re late in the season, we’ve been doing the same stuff. You hope at this point that the players aren’t thinking about scheme. This is where it’s encouraging and you just know that these young men are getting better. If you’re thinking about your scheme and your technique and you’re worried about where do I line up? You don’t hear that. Dee has gotten to the point where he’s not even thinking about his responsibility anymore. He’s not thinking about his call. He is not thinking about where he needs to be. He’s listening and he’s watching. And for him to gather the information he gathered at that moment, I tell our players, there’s three occasions in the game where you’re just going to know. You’re just going to know exactly what the play is. You just have to have the confidence in yourself to just go jump it and abort your job and go do it. And that’s pretty much what he did. He knew it was coming. He baited it, waited for Philip to throw it and took it to the house. So it’s credit to him and one, mastering his craft to the point where he can start mastering the opponent. And I thought he did that and it progressed throughout the game.”