A familiar face will return to Levi’s Stadium on Monday night for the first time since November 2020.
Despite the hype behind New York Jets coach Robert Saleh’s return to a place where he served as San Francisco’s defensive coordinator from 2017 through 2020, 49ers coach Kyle Shanahan, who heavily respects his former assistant and his team, doesn’t see it in the same light.
That’s what Shanahan shared with Greg Papa on NBC Sports Bay Area’s “49ers Game Plan” just days before the Week 1 “Monday Night Football” matchup.
“Not that big of a deal,” Shanahan told Papa. “I mean, Saleh is a great defensive coordinator. He’s a great head coach, and he’s got a really talented team.”
“They’re a problem. They’re tough to go against.”
Shanahan and Saleh’s NFL connection dates to 2006, when both served as Houston Texans staffers. So, when Shanahan was tasked to appoint a defensive coordinator after assuming his first head-coaching job in 2017, he called on Saleh.
Together, they managed to convert the 49ers into a well-oiled machine, especially on the defensive front — a feat that Shanahan values and recognizes couldn’t have been possible without Saleh’s coaching prowess.
“But one of the things I liked about Saleh the most was his very sound defense,” Shanahan added. “That’s where it starts, and when you’re a sound defense and you have the personnel, you’re going to play at a high level.
“There [aren’t] that many tricks to it. You got to really earn it. And when teams are disciplined at what they do and they don’t have to get out of control and do crazy blitzes to try to create things, there isn’t a lot of scheme to it.
“It’s about being smart, being disciplined, taking what they give you, playing extremely physical, not turning it over.”
Saleh on Monday again will trot the sideline in Santa Clara. But it will look much different.
The Jets coach not only will sport different colors on the opposite side of the field, but he will do so without leading his defense — a duty fulfilled by coordinator Jeff Ulbrich.
Which, if anything, gives Shanahan a reason to give his friend a hard time heading into what is primed to be an exhilarating game.
“I’ll mess with Saleh,” Shanahan said. “He’s going to sit there and cheer a lot. I’m going to give him crap about that. He wants to come lift on Monday.
“I mess with him all the time on that stuff, and that’s kind of our relationship. He’s a great friend. I have a lot of respect for him as a coach, but those are usually the ones that are more fun to beat.”
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