The 49ers didn’t waste any time moving on from Robert Saleh, and one of their young defensive backs has already made it clear why.
With Saleh now running the Tennessee Titans after the offseason change, San Francisco handed the defense to Raheem Morris. Safety Ji’Ayir Brown says the difference is obvious, and he didn’t soften the point when talking after practice.
"[Morris] wants football players. Previous schemes haven't been that - haven't wanted that...
He wants instinctive players... So, the scheme fits all of us," Brown said in his presser after practice.
That’s a pretty direct endorsement of the new setup, and it paints Morris as the kind of coordinator who is giving his players room to react instead of overthinking every snap. Brown said the scheme fits him and the other defensive backs, and the 49ers appear to be buying into that approach quickly.
The comments also land with extra weight because Saleh’s second run in San Francisco never fully hit the mark. The 49ers finished 12-5 last season, but the defense sat in the middle of the pack in points allowed per game and finished in the bottom 10 in takeaways. The 2025 unit was also second-to-last in interceptions, and several defensive backs, Brown included, either stalled out or didn’t quite take the next step.
That wasn’t exactly a one-off, either. Outside of Saleh’s 2019 Super Bowl defense, his first stint with the 49ers was uneven. San Francisco allowed at least 23.9 points per game and ranked in the bottom half of the league in takeaways in three of his four seasons.
His first year with the Jets didn’t help the résumé much, either. New York had the league’s worst defense in his opening season, and while that side of the ball improved over time, the offense took a hit under a defensive-minded head coach.
Now the 49ers are looking ahead with a different voice in charge and several key players expected back healthy. They’re not spending much time dwelling on what came before.
And there’s recent history suggesting they might be onto something. After Saleh’s previous departure, San Francisco’s defense took a major step forward in 2021 under DeMeco Ryans, finishing ninth in points allowed per game before becoming the NFL’s best defense in Ryans’ second year.
So while Saleh starts his second chance as a head coach in Tennessee, the 49ers are already testing what this defense can look like with a more progressive coordinator steering the ship. If the same old issues follow Saleh to the Titans, that defense could be in for a rough start.
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