Robert Saleh is back in The Bay for a second stint as the San Francisco 49ers defensive coordinator. His hiring was announced by the team a couple weeks after the conclusion of the 2024 campaign and marks the first new addition to San Francisco's coaching staff this offseason. Saleh spent the last three-plus seasons as the head coach of the New York Jets and concluded the year as an offensive consultant for the Green Bay Packers.

Saleh first signed on with the 49ers in 2017 at the start of the John Lynch-Kyle Shanahan era and served as the team's defensive coordinator through the conclusion of the 2020 season. However, Saleh's history with Shanahan extends far beyond that. The two first crossed paths while working under Houston Texans head coach Dom Capers back in 2005. Shanahan was a wide receivers coach, and Saleh was a defensive coaching intern for the organization.

Fan and player reactions to Saleh's most recent hiring are a testament to the excitement of a second go-around with the veteran defensive coordinator.

All-Pro and Pro Bowler Fred Warner took to social media to post a picture of him and his coach dapping up on the field after a 49ers victory. Warner gave Saleh high praise on his podcast, "The Warner House" back in December of 2023. "Robert Saleh is one of the best coaches I have ever played for," Warner said. "(He's an) amazing teacher. He's the reason I got drafted to the Niners. I remember on my 30 visit, he was adamant that he felt I was one of the top backers in the draft... He saw my film and was like, 'I can see exactly what you could be.'

"I don't know if anybody knew what I could be for real, but he saw some potential. And, he was the first one to kind of tell me some things he liked in my game, so that was someone who gave me so much confidence."

Saleh has 23 years of combined collegiate and NFL coaching experience, however, his professional career began in a vastly different field. The Northern Michigan University alum graduated with a degree in finance and was a credit analyst for Comerica Bank before a national tragedy led to him changing the course of his life in the early 2000s.

Saleh's older brother David was at work in the South Tower during the September 11th attack in 2001. Despite initial reports of an attack on the North Tower being an isolated event, Saleh's brother rushed to escape his building and was able to narrowly avoid falling victim to the hit on the second tower.

"You look at the events that transpired, you know, you look at my brother," Saleh said in an NFL 360 feature. "He was 25 at the time. It's just, is he really doing what he really wanted to do? I am I really doing what I wanted to do?... I sat in a cubicle, crunched numbers all day. You know, that Super Bowl hit, awesome game obviously - Patriots vs. Rams. That next morning, I'm sitting in my cubicle, and I just start crying."

The other motivating factor at play was a love of football instilled in him by his father, Sam. The Salehs are a football family though and through, and, by 2002, Saleh had found himself on Michigan State football's coaching staff.

"My dad lives, breathes football and so we were kind of raised that way," Saleh said. "He always regretted not coaching football. I just started getting this urge to coach and give a try."

Saleh was a four-year starter for the Northern Michigan University in Marquette, Michigan, an NCAA Division II school. He played tight end for the Wildcats from 1997-2000.

Off the field, Saleh is an avid chess player, a skill he and his brother also picked up from his father. Per a story from Matt Barrows of "The Athletic," he now boasts a chess rating of 1950 that is just below that of an expert.

His love of the game has spread to some of his former players including Jacksonville Jaguars defensive lineman Arik Armstead, who spent the first nine seasons of his career with the 49ers. Armstead mentioned on NFL Network's "Good Morning Football" in May of 2023 that he and Saleh used chess as a way to keep in touch despite no longer being a part of the same organization.