Niners Nation
San Francisco 49ers defensive coordinator Robert Saleh raised some eyebrows on Thursday when he was asked how he’d combat the challenge of preparing for the Jacksonville Jaguars without star edge rusher Nick Bosa. These were the first words to come out of Saleh’s mouth:
Jacksonville, this is a very young but talented group. Liam and his staff, a couple of guys coming from Minnesota, they’ve got legally, a really advanced signal stealing type system where they always find a way to put themselves in an advantageous situation. They do a great job with it. They formation you to just try to find any nugget they can. So, we’ve got to be great with our signals and we’ve got to be great with our communication to combat some of the tells that we might give on the field. They’re almost elite in that regard.
Saleh isn’t the type of coach to give his opponent bulletin board material. He’s candid, open, and brutally honest. He said what Liam Cohen and his staff are doing isn’t any different from the rest of that coaching tree, including Sean McVay and Kevin O’Connell.
A couple of questions later, Saleh was asked a follow-up: Who are the Jaguars stealing the signals from? Here’s his answer:
“That’s the ultimate trick, whether it’s people from the sideline or whether it’s our individual hand signals. Whatever nugget they can find, they catch it. They always happen to find themselves in good situations based on the coverage you show. There’s nothing illegal about it. I’m not suggesting that. It’s just, you can tell that they’ve got a can system that’s getting them into a very advantageous position. It gets them into a very advantageous position multiple times during the course of a game.”
OK. That’s a funny response. “I’m not saying they’re cheating, but they sure happen to move the ball when they know the answer,” Saleh, basically.
Here’s Saleh’s answer to the question of whether he’s ever caught somebody stealing his signals:
“No, were there findings, and I was like, ‘how’d they know to get to that play?’ Yeah. We dealt with it in Minnesota last year. They got us into a couple of situations. You can see it on tape when they’re studying. It’s like, ‘how’d they know to be in that call at that time?’ We’ve experienced it with the Rams a little bit. It’s not an uncommon thing. This group of people, they’re pretty good at it.”
That was the second mention of the same coaching tree. The 49ers play the Rams next Thursday.
Sign-stealing has been prevalent in college and the NFL for years. This isn’t anything new. If we stick to the coaching tree Saleh’s referring to, Liam Cohen brought over a pair of assistants from the Minnesota Vikings to the Jaguars last season — Grant Udinski and Shaun Sarrett. Udkinski, 29, is the current offensive coordinator in Jacksonville. He was Sam Darnold’s quarterback coach during their magical run in 2024....
