Defensive Coordinator Robert Saleh Press Conference

Defensive Coordinator Robert Saleh

Press Conference – September 11, 2025

San Francisco 49ers

What can you tell us about QB Adrian Martinez? I know you had Adrian with the Jets last year and now he’s here. What’s the story with Adrian?

“A big fan of Adrian’s. He’s first and foremost, a really good person. He’s got a live arm. He’s athletic. Then he’s young in the game, he’s a willing learner, but he’s a good player.”

DL Yetur Gross-Matos seemed to have some effectiveness rushing from the inside in the opener. What do you see from him and how he can contribute with limited snaps at this point?

“Yeah, as he gets comfortable, obviously coming back from injury, we’ll increase his reps. But one thing he can do, he’s versatile in that he can play outside and inside. I do think he’s very powerful as a pass rusher, but he also has great feet and athleticism to capture an edge. You kind of saw it, for a guy who hasn’t had really any practice reps or game reps, he went out there and I thought he did really well. So, looking forward to seeing how he progresses over the course of the year.”

How would you assess DL Mykel Williams’ first game? He didn’t exactly light up the stat sheet, but he was on the field a lot.

“Yeah, he was. There’s a lot of things he’s got to clean up. When you get into an NFL game plan and it’s going pretty quick, there’s a lot of assignments, alignments for those guys where we’re not just lining up in the same spot as in years past. There are different things that we’re asking him to do, which is a lot for a rookie. When his feet are in the ground and he knows what to do, he looks really good. He’ll come along just fine. On the 40-yard play, you talk about inches, on the 40-yard play at the end of the game, he’s about to end it. And that center for Seattle I think made an unbelievable play to save it. But Mykel is free off the pick and he’s about to end the game. He did a lot of really good things, but there’s obviously some things he has got to clean up.”

Do you like what he’s been doing from the inside more or the outside?

“It’s going to be a work in progress for both. He’s going make his living, at least while we’re here, being a first and second down run defender on the outside and then rushing the passer on the inside. We think he can rush the passer outside too, but we also think that he can be an elite interior pass rusher, which is very hard to find. Those guys are rare. Even more rare than an edge guy. So, he’s got great versatility to him and when you ask guys to go inside out, it does take him probably a little bit more time. Especially when you think of our philosophy. We try to get guys doing one thing and doing it really, really well. He’s in a position where his greatest gift is his greatest curse in terms of his versatility. We’re trying to make sure that we balance it enough so that way he can maximize who he is.”

Going into the next week, as specific as you can allow, what are some jumps or some improvements that you are looking forward to seeing out of the defense and specific players?

“Well, you always want to be clean. We gave up five explosive plays and you’re never, I shouldn’t say never, but you’re trying to strive to keep it to a minimum. You want to make sure that your assignments are always 100-percent, the things you’ve got control over. You know, it is the NFL, you’re going to miss a tackle. You’re going to lose a one-on-one, that’s going to happen, but you never want it to be because you weren’t a 100-percent in your technique, you weren’t 100-percent in your effort, you weren’t 100-percent in your intent and violence. So, there’s that stuff that we have to clean up, you know? If we can continue to do that, there are mistakes out there that we didn’t get caught on, and that’s what they’re alluding to. There are things that you look at on tape and to the naked eye no big deal. But to us, it could be taken advantage of by a good offensive coordinator who sees the space that certain techniques are creating.”

How did DL Nick Bosa play up before the grand finale?

“I thought he was outstanding. I get the sacks and all that stuff, but he was rushing with great power, his run defense was on point, he played smart and I thought he was awesome.”

Can you quantify how big of that final play was by him and how it kind of defines who he is?

“Well, I’ve talked to you guys about it before, they’re closers. Guys like him, [DL] Bryce Huff, they’re closers. I joke about it, but it’s also part truth in that even in baseball, you’ve got this guy who comes in and closes the ninth inning, he plays once every 30 games, he’s asked to close a game and he gets paid a junk ton of money to do it. That’s that guy. You’re in the fourth quarter, every game’s going to come down to one score and you need somebody to close the game. That’s where those edge rushers and interior pass rushers come into play.”

Do you have to reinforce that with him going into the season at all?

“No, he’s wise beyond his years.”

What’s the key to defending the screen pass? It seemed like you guys identified it and attacked it pretty aggressively.

“Effort. It’s 11 hats to the ball. It’s setting edges on the outside and 11 hats running to the football. It’s not one guy that defends the screen, it’s the entire defense. So, we always talk about defending the screen is about effort. It’s as simple as that.”

What’s your assessment of the Saints’ offense?

“We’ve played [New Orleans Saints head coach] Kellen [Moore] before, got experience with him in the past, both here, the Jets, all that good stuff. He’s a damn good coordinator. A very, very good play caller. They showed a variety of stuff. They’re not just going to sit back and be a vanilla offense. They’re going to give you multiple personnel groupings. They’re going to jump in and out of tempo. They’re going to give you some wonky looks. They’re going to make you work on a lot of things. And they’ve got the personnel to do it. [New Orleans Saints RB] Alvin Kamara is one of the better backs in the league. Their O-Line is very talented. Their receivers are as fast as we’ve seen up to date. This quarterback, I’m telling you, he’s going to be a household by the end of the year. This kid’s pretty good. So, he’s a twitchy athlete. He’s got a hell of an arm. He’s very decisive in his decision making as he goes through his progression, and he’s accurate with the football. So, they gave Arizona everything they could handle.”

You guys won the time of possession in this first game by 16 minutes. How important is it for your young defense to play complementary football early in the year?

“That’s a great observation. The offense was outstanding on Sunday, that Seattle defense is a bear. They’re going to be a bear all season and our offense was able to just churn out time. I’ve always said that the best defenses in the world are the ones that are on the sideline watching. Our offense was precise. They were in favorable situations. They were converting on third down, running the heck out of the football. It was cool to watch on the sideline. It was awesome.”

Last week, we were talking about the game slowing down for rookies and you joked “let’s see” Week 1, that’s when it’s really going to speed up. So how did S Marques Sigle and CB Upton Stout do in that regard?

“They were good. I thought they did nice jobs attacking Stout and giving him some things that you can prepare for. But, until the speed of Week 1 happens, there’s just little things that he’ll be even better on. Sigle, I thought did a really nice job. Again, there’s things that he can clean up. He was in certain positions that could have left him vulnerable, but thankfully he came out unscathed. So, I thought overall all the rookies did a nice job for their first game and the key for them is to continue growing.”

Bosa said you were nervous before that game. I assume you might be nervous before each game, but there was a different level of anxiety. Is that true? And is it just because of the unknown of what that was going to look like?

“I’ll tell you guys a funny story. On Monday night, I had a dream that Seattle scored 37 points. It was a nightmare. I told [assistant head coach defense] Gus [Bradley] about it, and he goes, ‘man, only 37? That’s pretty good.’ By Friday, it gets down though, you keep going down. So yeah, if you have a conversation with me in the beginning of the week, I’m scared to death. As of now, I think we’re going to give up 50. But that’s just the way we’re all wired, at least I’m wired. I’m scared to death and I need to prepare as good as I can to calm my nerves on Sunday.”

Follow up. Is it junk ton? Was that what you said? Junk ton of money?

“Oh, junk ton. Yeah. Junk. It’s a better word than saying the s-word for you guys.”