Niners Nation
Your daily San Francisco 49ers news for Saturday, May 31st, 2025
Kawakami: 49ers’ goal? Whatever happened in 2024 … do the opposite in 2025 (paywall)
“You also can feel how important it was to get Robert Saleh back for his second stint as defensive coordinator after Shanahan ran through Nick Sorensen last year and Steve Wilks in 2023. The 49ers needed a DC who commands instant respect and confidence. They needed a DC who can be a partner with Shanahan. They needed somebody they knew could do the job.
And on Thursday, Shanahan and Saleh walked out to the field together, they huddled through the early drills, and they laughed and chatted throughout the team sessions, when it was Shanahan’s offense going up against Saleh’s defense. I watched a lot of practices the past two years, and Shanahan never looked that comfortable talking with Wilks or Sorensen. And there’s a new flavor to their relationship after Saleh’s up-and-down run as the Jets’ head coach.
“I don’t have to get on him as much,” Shanahan said with a laugh. “He knows. No, because it’s funny when you hear stories of, ‘Oh, now I get why you were so frustrated with me in this instance because I thought you were being kind of a jerk about it.’ He goes, ‘But I was twice as mean to my guy the last two years on it.’ So you start to learn those things as you go through them and it kind of makes it a little more fun.”
49ers trade for Eagles’ Bryce Huff to add veteran to defensive line (paywall)
“Huff’s struggles as a run defender are why he hasn’t been an every down player in the NFL. He has played more than 43% of his teams’ snaps once in his career, logging 51% in nine games with the Jets in 2021, and has started 13 of 66 career games.
Last year, after Huff signed with the Eagles, Saleh was asked about Huff’s one-dimensional reputation. He noted Huff’s best quality had great value.
“People want to say that all he does is rush the passer, but all Mariano Rivera did was close ninth innings,” said Saleh, who coached Huff from 2021-2023. “So he’s a pretty darn good pass rusher.”
Hutchinson: Robert Saleh’s D̶e̶e̶ ̶F̶o̶r̶d̶ Bryce Huff reunion is a coup (paywall)
“This sets San Francisco up for a situation where, on third downs, they could theoretically have zero defensive tackles on the field. Imagine their so-called NASCAR package with Huff recapturing the Dee Ford archetype that the 49ers have not had since 2019. You’d have Nick Bosa and Huff on the edges, Mykel Williams bull rushing from 3- or 5-technique, and Yetur Gross-Matos or Sam Okuayinonu up the middle, as he did, and was effective early on last season.
There are variations of this, of course, where you could have a split front, putting two wide-9 rushers and two 5-techniques, with Fred Warner and another linebacker or nickel flashing A-gap...
