Raheem Morris, 49ers Reportedly Agree to DC Contract After Robert Saleh Hired by Titans

The San Francisco 49ers have their Robert Saleh replacement.

According to ESPN's Adam Schefter, the team is reportedly hiring former Atlanta Falcons head coach Raheem Morris to serve as the new defensive coordinator.

Saleh left the Niners this offseason to become the new head coach for the Tennessee Titans, creating a void at defensive coordinator. It will be the team's fifth defensive coordinator in the past five years after Saleh previously left the team in 2020 to become the head coach of the New York Jets, DeMeco Ryans replaced him and was hired by the Houston Texans as head coach a year later and Steve Wilks (2023) and Nick Sorensen (2024) were each one-and-done additions in the role.

"I definitely don't like doing this for the fifth year in a row," head coach Kyle Shanahan told reporters in January. "I really would like to go on vacation, but these D-coordinators keep making me have my family wait and get mad at me for it."

Morris will bring plenty of experience to the position, and certainly has a long history with Shanahan:

The 49-year-old has served as the defensive coordinator at Kansas State (2006), for the Falcons (2020) and the Los Angeles Rams (2021-23) along with stints as a head coach for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers (2009-11) and Atlanta (2024-25).

His defenses have never ranked top-10 in yardage allowed in a season and only once ranked top-10 in points allowed (No. 9 in 2010 with Tampa). His units were top-10 in takeaways three times, however.

With Morris having a rough go of it as a head coach (37-56), the Niners may have found a long-term stopgap at defensive coordinator. The revolving door may finally be closed (unless the 2026 team struggles immensely on defense, of course).