49ers news: 3 best special teams coordinators to replace Richard Hightower

The 49ers have a void for their special teams coordinator in the wake of Richard Hightower leaving for the Bears, but these three candidates make sense.

The San Francisco 49ers’ coaching staff under head coach Kyle Shanahan is going to look noticeably different in 2022 than it did in 2021.

One of the potentially hot names many thought would be departing is defensive coordinator DeMeco Ryans after engineering a top-10 defense over the course of last season. But after initially interviewing with the Minnesota Vikings for their head-coaching vacancy, Ryans felt it best to stay put with the Niners this season.

He’s the only coordinator to do so, though.

San Francisco’s biggest loss, without question, was seeing offensive coordinator Mike McDaniel depart to take over as the Miami Dolphins new head coach. Perhaps this was foreseen by Shanahan and Co., as they made the move to onboard former Los Angeles Chargers head coach Anthony Lynn a mere day before McDaniel officially accepted his position.

But the other departure, perhaps not quite as shocking, was special teams coordinator Richard Hightower leaving his post with the 49ers to join the Chicago Bears in the same role.

Hightower was in charge of a Niners special teams unit that finished 26th in Football Outsiders’ DVOA metric last season and seemingly was responsible for game-altering gaffes on almost a week-to-week basis.

San Francisco might be satisfied with the reality Hightower is gone after relatively substandard special teams performances the last few years, but it does prompt the necessity to replace him with someone just as capable if not better.

Here are three candidates who could best fill that void now.