San Francisco 49ers defensive coordinator Robert Saleh owned up to his role in a postgame confrontation with Jacksonville Jaguars coach Liam Coen on Sunday.
Saleh admitted the confrontation with Coen was the result of a comment he made last week praising the Jaguars for being good at legally stealing signals. Coen took offense to that, which led to their on-field showdown after the Jaguars’ 26-21 win on Sunday (video here).
“In my heart, I genuinely was trying to give him a compliment, and I own the fact that it was the wrong choice of words,” Saleh said Tuesday. “However you want to word it, they’re really, really good at putting their players in a position to be successful.
“As a coach, watching their tape, I recognized the amount of hours that must be spent to be able to build formations and find every little indicator they can to give their players a chance to be in a successful situation. It was my way of acknowledging that these guys are really, really good at it.”
Robert Saleh on his misunderstanding with the Jaguars:
— Coach Yac 🗣 (@Coach_Yac) September 30, 2025
“It’s all good. Whatever happened on Sunday doesn’t change how I feel. In my heart, I genuinely was trying to give a compliment. I own the fact that I probably used the wrong choice of words. However you want to word it.… pic.twitter.com/wOxp581eW9
Saleh was still complimentary of Coen as well, even though they were not very cordial with each other following the Jacksonville win.
It was clear that Saleh learned his lesson on Tuesday. Ahead of Thursday’s game against the Los Angeles Rams, he again discussed the skills of signal recognition among Sean McVay and his acolytes, but went out of his way to refer to it as “formation identification.”
Robert Saleh: "Sean, Kyle, Kevin O'Connell — they do such a great job at formation identification."
— Matt Barrows (@mattbarrows) September 30, 2025
He made a concerted effort to avoid using "sign stealing" this week. He called that a poor choice of words.
The whole thing was a pretty big misunderstanding, though it turned out to be an entertaining one. Sign-stealing is a very loaded phrase, and Saleh should have known as much, even if he clarified that the Jaguars were not doing anything illegal. He knows better now.
