George Kittle is ready to welcome Robert Saleh back to San Francisco.
The 49ers tight end was asked on “The Rich Eisen Show‘ about Saleh returning as the team’s defensive coordinator this season.
“Violence is coming is what I would say,” Kittle said.
Saleh, who served as 49ers defesnive coordinator from 2017 to 2020, was hired to return the same role in January.
Saleh helped build San Francisco’s defense under head coach Kyle Shanahan until he took a head coaching job with the Jets.
Saleh served as Jets head coach from 2021 until he was fired last season when the team was 2-3. They promoted defensive coordinator Jeff Ulbrich to interim head coach and he finished with a 3-9 record. Meanwhile the Jets defense, which is supposed to be the team’s best unit, suffered a noticeable decline after their coordinator’s promotion. At the time of Saleh’s firing, the Jets had fifth-best points-per-game allowed in the NFL (17 ppg) and they fell to the 21st spot (24 ppg) by the end of the season.
Saleh was 20-36 in more than three seasons with the Jets before his dismissal, and he’s spent the final couple of months of last season with the Green Bay Packers.
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Bridget Hyland may be reached at bhyland@njadvancemedia.com.