Mike McCarthy, the head coach of the Dallas Cowboys, informed his staff of the team’s departure. The San Francisco 49ers should be interested in both of the highly sought-after coordinators who are now available.
Although I’ve long admired Mike Zimmer, the 49ers should focus on Dallas’s special teams coordinator.
For almost two decades, John Fassel has been employed by the NFL in a variety of special teams groups. Before joining the Raiders as special teams coordinator in 2008, he started off as an assistant for the Baltimore Ravens in 2005. The icing on the cake for Fassell is that he was the Rams’ special teams coordinator in the NFC West from 2008 to 2019 before he held the same position with the Cowboys until Monday.
It would be difficult to locate a coordinator with more experience than Fassel. Additionally, the outcomes are self-evident.
The Cowboys placed third in the 2024 special teams DVOA. Kicker Brandon Aubrey is helpful because he was in range as soon as Dallas passed mid-field and seemed to never miss. Dallas dominated the league in kickoff return DVOA by a wide margin. Fassel should get an interview because of Deebo Samuel’s season-ending performance as a returner.
The San Francisco 49ers’ top pick in the 2025 NFL Draft and NFL free agency is revealed by rumors.
The San Francisco 49ers continued their pattern of either winning six or fewer games or making it to the NFC Championship Game as the season came to a close. With a few primary concerns in mind, the 49ers are turning their attention to the NFL offseason after a disappointing 6-11 record.
After the regular season concluded, San Francisco made coaching staff changes right away. The organization declared defensive coordinator Nick Sorensen will not be retained for the upcoming season and fired special teams coordinator Brian Schneider.
San Francisco reconnected with its former defensive play-caller Robert Saleh after initial worries that he could accept a head coaching position with the Jacksonville Jaguars. This past week, the team formally confirmed his return, welcome back the man who built one of the NFL’s top defenses from 2017–20. Now that Saleh is back on board, the emphasis is on giving him further support.
Tony Pauline of SportsKeeda reports that 49ers coaches at the Shrine Bowl have stated that improving the team’s defensive speed is a “major priority” this summer. The organization’s specific goal for the upcoming season is to be significantly speedier in the secondary.
It is also anticipated that Saleh’s hiring will lead to more “innovation” on that side of the ball. With Sorensen and Steve Wilks as its previous defensive coordinators, San Francisco tried to salvage things, but neither of them had the same faith in Saleh as Kyle Shanahan has, nor did they bring his defensive inventiveness to the table.
The 49ers are aiming to re-sign linebacker Dre Greenlaw in addition to their aspirations to use less of the base package, deploy more diverse looks, and speed up defense. The team will try its best to get him back to play alongside All-Pro linebacker Fred Warner in the 2025 NFL season, almost a year after he tore his Achilles during Super Bowl LVIII.
