The San Francisco 49ers are looking for a defensive coordinator after firing Steve Wilks after one season.
The 49ers had a nice defensive run under coordinators Robert Saleh (2017-20) and DeMeco Ryans (2021-22). Both men went on to become head coaches, Saleh with the Jets, and Ryans with the Houston Texans.
Ryans was the linebacker coach under Saleh with the 49ers, so when he took over, he continued playing Saleh’s system.
That system is very similar to the one that Pete Carroll played for many years in Seattle, with a lot of Cover Three zone.
Wilks doesn’t come from that coaching tree and plays a different system.
So the 49ers want to get back to their roots, so this led to a rumor that maybe they would be interested in hiring Jets defensive coordinator Jeff Ulbrich.
Well it really wasn’t a rumor. It was long-time Bay Area sportswriter Tim Kawakami, thinking out loud that Ulbrich would be a good fit in San Francisco.
Ulbrich’s from the Bay Area. He went to Morgan Hill High School in Santa Clara County and he also played linebacker for the 49ers.
However, he’s under contract to the Jets as their defensive coordinator. You can’t leave one team you are under contract to, to take the same job with another organization. The new job needs to be a promotion.
Also you get the sense that Ulbrich wants his next job to be a head coaching position, so why uproot your family from New Jersey to go to San Francisco, for the same job?
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