The San Francisco 49ers hired a familiar face to revive a defensive unit that had gone from one of the league’s best to mediocre in recent years.
Robert Saleh is back for a second stint as coordinator in hopes that he can once again build back the defense in similar fashion to what he did in 2019 when San Francisco’s stingy defense helped carry the team to the Super Bowl.
“His commanding presence in defensive meetings is what we needed,” star defensive end Nick Bosa said.
The 49ers aren’t the only contender that made a change at play-caller on offense or defense headed into 2025. How all of those work out will go a long way to determining which teams are playing deep into January.
Some teams were forced to make changes they didn’t want to, with Detroit needing to replace both coordinators after Ben Johnson and Aaron Glenn got head coaching jobs and Super Bowl champion Philadelphia needing to replace offensive coordinator Kellen Moore after he became New Orleans‘ head coach.
Tampa Bay is in a similar boat for a second straight season after losing an offensive coordinator to a head coaching job, with Liam Coen leaving for Jacksonville one year after Dave Canales left for Carolina.
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Other teams such as Houston, Cincinnati and Seattle made changes in hopes of finding a spark.
Here’s a look at some of the key new coordinators around the NFL:
49ers DC Robert Saleh
The 49ers ranked 29th in the league in scoring defense last season, allowing 25.6 points per game, and were tied for the seventh-fewest takeaways with 17, as the unit looked nothing like the dominant ones under Saleh and DeMeco Ryans from 2019-22. That led to Shanahan making another change at coordinator, bringing back Saleh after he was fired as head coach of the New York Jets to replace the fired Nick Sorensen.
During Saleh’s last two full seasons with the Jets in 2022-23, New York ranked first in yards passing allowed per game (178.9) and yards per play allowed (4.7), and second in total defense (301.7 yards per game).
The Niners are hoping similar results will get them back to the postseason after a 6-11 record in 2024.
Lions OC John Morton and DC Kelvin Sheppard
Detroit became the third team in the past 15 seasons to lose both coordinators to NFL head coaching jobs in the same offseason, with it also happening to Philadelphia following the 2022 season and Cincinnati after 2013. Both those teams went back to the playoffs the following season, losing in the wild-card round.
The Lions have their sights set higher after making it to the NFC title game in 2023 and losing in the divisional round as the top seed last season. Whether that happens will depend heavily on whether Morton can keep the offense in the top five in scoring for a fourth straight season after Johnson helped make it one of the most dynamic in the league with his trick plays and schemes.
Morton has only one year of play-calling experience in the NFL in 2017 with the Jets, finishing in the bottom 10 in scoring with an offense that lacked the playmakers he has in Detroit. Sheppard should be helped by getting star pass rusher Aidan Hutchinson back healthy after he missed the final 12 games last season with a broken leg.
Eagles OC Kevin Patullo
Quarterback Jalen Hurts will have a fourth play-caller in as many years with Patullo getting promoted from passing game coordinator following Moore’s departure. The offense improved under Moore in 2024 after stagnating the previous season when Brian Johnson replaced Shane Steichen as OC.
Patullo has plenty of talent with one of the top offensive lines, record-setting running back Saquon Barkley and two talented wideouts in A.J. Brown and DeVonta Smith to support Hurts.
Buccaneers OC Josh Grizzard
Tampa Bay’s offense got even better last season when Coen replaced Canales with both the running game and screen passing showing major improvement. Grizzard will try to build on that as he moves from passing game coordinator to OC. He was heavily involved with the third down offense last season when the Bucs led the NFL by converting 50.9%.
Texans OC Nick Caley
Ryans made a change after last season even though Houston made it back to the divisional round. That came in spite of the offense taking a big step back, thanks in large part to shoddy line play that hindered the growth of quarterback C.J. Stroud. Caley comes over after spending the past two seasons on Sean McVay’s staff with the Rams and is being counted on to bring some of Los Angeles’ successful wrinkles to Houston to help make Stroud’s job easier.
He will need to do it with an overhauled offensive line that lost stalwart Laremy Tunsil in the offseason.
Bengals DC AL Golden
The Bengals went to the college ranks to hire Golden away from Notre Dame to replace Lou Anarumo. Cincinnati reached the Super Bowl with Anarumo leading the defense in the 2021 season but regressed the past few years and were ranked in the bottom 10 in most categories last season.
Golden spent the 2020-21 season as linebackers coach for the Bengals and brings a man-heavy scheme to the NFL.
Seahawks OC Klint Kubiak
Seattle hired Kubiak to replace Ryan Grubb in hopes that his scheme heavy on zone blocking and play-action passing could help the Seahawks offensive line. Kubiak was OC in New Orleans last season when the Saints got off to a fast start before injuries led to a downfall.
Reporting by The Associated Press.
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