LA Rams won’t face Saleh, but 49ers D will remain tough to beat

Great NFL coaching talent always finds a way to more responsibility and better opportunities. That has now occurred for LA Rams defensive nemesis defensive coordinator Robert Saleh, whose defense with the San Francisco 49ers has been a bit of Kryptonite to the Rams offensive scheme under head coach Sean McVay. Well, Saleh had help.  You see, the 49ers head coach is McVay’s former boss, Kyle Shanahan, who was the former offensive coordinator for the Washington Football Team.  And that intimate knowledge of McVay has been used to great advantage by Saleh whenever the 49ers face the Rams.

Of course, the two instant questions that immediately form are: Will any 49ers coaches follow him to the Jets? And secondly, who will take over the defense at San Francisco?

So Saleh will cannibalize the 49ers offensive coaching staff for his new OC. That is a promotion for LaFleur, unlike the lateral move proposed by the LA Chargers in requesting to interview Rams OC Kevin O’Connell, which the Rams promptly nixed.

Saleh handled the Rams over time

Saleh became the 49ers defensive coordinator in 2017, and so has been the only DC that McVay has faced.  In those four years, the 49ers lost 41-39 and won 34-13 in 2017 (avg 27 pts surrendered), lost 39-10 and lost 48-32 in 2018 (avg 44 pts surrendered), won 20-7 and won 34-31 in 2019 (avg 19 points surrendered) and won 24-16 and won 23-20 in 2020 (averaged 18 points surrendered).

And while the Rams will shed no tears over Saleh’s promotion, don’t expect their defense to suddenly fold. In fact, it may improve as the team is expected to promote linebackers coach DeMeco Ryans to the defensive coordinator role.  Ryans was a former outstanding linebacker for the Houston Texans and Philadelphia Eagles, earning the nickname ‘Mustafa’ for his outstanding leadership qualities even as a player. And he was a workhorse, taking as many as 1,189 defensive snaps in a season.

It was Saleh who brought in DeMeco Ryans as a defensive quality control coach in 2017, promoting him to linebackers coach the following year.  Now it is Ryans who will take over for Saleh, and folks, this is a concern. Ryans is sharp, very charismatic, and the 49ers’ future DC has a solid command of the roles on defense. Ryans may actually be an upgrade, and it pains me to say that.

So long Saleh! But the Rams will get no easy time with his successor. In fact, the 49ers’ defense may have gotten better as a result.