Saleh didn't consider other DC jobs: 'I'm indebted to' 49ers

Robert Saleh is back with the San Francisco 49ers, and he says he didn't consider taking any other team's defensive coordinator job.

"I have a tremendous amount of respect for this organization. ... If you think about those first two years as the coordinator in '17 and '18, it wasn't easy," Saleh told reporters Thursday. "And it could have been very easy for them to move on for me.

"I'm indebted to this organization, to those men, for the rest of my life. They stuck with me, and we made it happen. We did what we needed to do, and the rest is history. I'm excited about the opportunity to get a chance to do it again with them."

Saleh spent three-plus seasons as the head coach of the New York Jets before the franchise fired him in October. He finished with a 20-36 record and zero playoff appearances. The 46-year-old said he's bringing a new perspective to his second stint in San Francisco.

"Obviously, I've gone through the head coaching stuff, and you learn a lot going through that," Saleh said. "But I'm happy to be back in this chair, where you get to coach a little bit more football and not deal with all the administrative stuff that comes with being a head coach."

He first joined the 49ers when Kyle Shanahan was hired as head coach in 2017, serving as DC until taking the Jets' top job in 2020. The Saleh-coached 49ers defense peaked in 2019 when San Francisco ranked second in yards allowed and reached Super Bowl LIV.

Saleh said he's bringing "a lot of really cool concepts" to this iteration of his defense, marrying ideas from his Jets tenure with new strategies to battle emerging offensive trends.

"You're always trying to stay two years ahead of offense," Saleh said.