SF 49ers: 4 reasons why promoting DeMeco Ryans was the right move
By Peter Panacy
Shortly after the SF 49ers watched Robert Saleh leave for the NY Jets, the Niners elected to promote DeMeco Ryans as defensive coordinator.
There were certainly some other candidates the SF 49ers considered to replace now-NY Jets head coach Robert Saleh, who went from a first-year defensive coordinator to a head coach after four developing years with the Niners.
Ultimately, however, San Francisco made the right choice by promoting from within, elevating linebackers coach DeMeco Ryans, who also joined Saleh under head coach Kyle Shanahan’s staff back in 2018, to the defensive coordinator role.
The fact the SF 49ers only waited a few days to announce Ryans’ hiring suggests they weren’t overly keen on bringing aboard an outside candidate, who’d likely had to get to know the vast majority of the Niners’ defensive players and could ultimately shake up the coaching staff on that side of the ball in the wake of Saleh’s departure.
That alone is one of the key reasons why Ryans’ promotion was the correct move for San Francisco to make.
No. 4: DeMeco Ryans maintains SF 49ers’ defensive continuity
Ryans paralleled Saleh’s maturation and development as a coordinator. As such, the former learned and helped integrate the large swarms of new faces the SF 49ers brought aboard since the massive start of the rebuild in 2017.
And Ryans had to go through those tough first two years, too, seeing what was a bottom-feeding defense transform into one of the more elite units in recent seasons.
As such, many of the players who thrived under Saleh and will be on the roster in 2021 will have that level of continuity. They’ll share the same bond and understanding with Ryans instead of having to get to know a new coordinator with a new system likely to be installed.
This doesn’t mean Ryans will automatically stick to Saleh’s scheme, no. But having paralleled the Niners’ ascension over the past few years, those players will be in line with whatever changes San Francisco’s new defensive coordinator might elect to make.
That’s a bonus and shouldn’t be understated.