After Robert Saleh was fired as Jets head coach on Tuesday, his former boss, 49ers head coach Kyle Shanahan, said he was “pretty shocked” by New York’s decision.
San Francisco General Manager John Lynch said he’d reached out to Saleh during his weekly interview with KNBR on Wednesday morning.
“First of all, my heart goes out to Robert,” Lynch said, via David Bonilla of 49erswebzone.com. “And I talked with Rob yesterday. He’s a great friend. He always will be. His family, they’re great friends. And that was tough. He did a lot of good things there. He couldn’t get it over the hump, and they made a tough call.
“He’ll be okay,” Lynch added. “He’s a really good football coach, really good human being, and he’s got a lot of ties here.”
Those ties are obvious, as Saleh was the 49ers defensive coordinator from 2017-2020 until he took the Jets head coaching job. But Saleh reportedly plans to take the rest of the year off from coaching, which means he wouldn’t be interested in rejoining San Francisco’s staff at this point.
On that subject, Lynch said the 49ers aren’t focused on bringing Saleh back to the organization in 2024.
The team currently has Nick Sorensen as coordinator and Brandon Staley as assistant head coach/defense running the defensive unit. Lynch said he thinks Sorensen is “doing a really good job coaching.”
“The results haven’t been what we wanted, and this is a results-oriented business. Nick understands that. We all understand that,” Lynch said. “But I watch with the fine-tuned eye, and I think he was the right choice when we chose him. I believe even more strongly in that.”
The 49ers currently rank No. 10 in yards allowed and No. 12 in points allowed. They will take on the Seahawks on Thursday night this week.
