{"id":755294,"date":"2026-02-16T04:32:14","date_gmt":"2026-02-16T04:32:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/755294\/"},"modified":"2026-02-16T04:32:14","modified_gmt":"2026-02-16T04:32:14","slug":"49ers-hire-jerry-gray-as-defensive-backs-coach-for-2026","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/755294\/","title":{"rendered":"49ers hire Jerry Gray as defensive backs coach for 2026"},"content":{"rendered":"

Feb. 15, 2026, 5:22 p.m. PT<\/p>\n

The San Francisco 49ers<\/a> officially lost defensive backs coach Daniel Bullocks to the Green Bay Packers<\/a> before the Super Bowl, and now, it appears they’ve found his replacement.<\/p>\n

On Sunday, CBS Sports’ Matt Zenitz reported<\/a> that the 49ers<\/a> are hiring Jerry Gray to fill the position.<\/p>\n

Gray was a first-round pick of the Los Angeles Rams<\/a> in the 1985 NFL draft out of Texas. As a cornerback, he played nine seasons in the league, including one with the Houston Oilers and one with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers<\/a>. He made four Pro Bowls and two All-Pros during his career.<\/p>\n

Two years after retiring from the NFL, Gray began coaching defensive backs at SMU. He made the jump to the NFL in 1997, coaching for the Tennessee Oilers.<\/p>\n

Gray has been a defensive coordinator twice in his coaching career, leading the Bills defense from 2001-05 and the Titans<\/a> defense from 2011-13. He’s spent the last three seasons as the assistant head coach\/defense for the Atlanta Falcons (two of which were under new 49ers defensive coordinator Raheem Morris).<\/p>\n

Expert NFL picks: Exclusive betting insights only at USA TODAY.<\/a><\/p>\n

The 63-year-old replaces Bullocks, who had been with the 49ers since 2017 and had been the defensive backs coach since 2023.<\/p>\n

More 49ers: What should 49ers do with free-agent WR who missed all of 2025?<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Feb. 15, 2026, 5:22 p.m. PT The San Francisco 49ers officially lost defensive backs coach Daniel Bullocks to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":755295,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2074],"tags":[95878,223,254,2554,224,7,6,96189,96190,95882,95946,95976,95924,95896,95888,95895,95899,98202,96090,96177,95884,95883,96239,95889,95881],"class_list":{"0":"post-755294","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-atlanta-falcons","8":"tag-accessfree","9":"tag-atlanta","10":"tag-atlanta-falcons","11":"tag-atlantafalcons","12":"tag-falcons","13":"tag-football","14":"tag-nfl","15":"tag-sstssportsnflniners","16":"tag-sstsnniners","17":"tag-tagamerican-football","18":"tag-tagcalifornia-gold-rush","19":"tag-taggreen-bay-packers","20":"tag-taglos-angeles-rams","21":"tag-tagnational-sports","22":"tag-tagnfl","23":"tag-tagnfl-hub","24":"tag-tagoverall-neutral","25":"tag-tagraheem-morris","26":"tag-tagsan-francisco-49ers","27":"tag-tagsmg-breaking-wire","28":"tag-tagsports-coaching-training","29":"tag-tagsports-news","30":"tag-tagtampa-bay-buccaneers","31":"tag-tagtennessee-titans","32":"tag-typestory"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/755294","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=755294"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/755294\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/755295"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=755294"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=755294"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=755294"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}