San Francisco 49ers defensive coordinator Robert Saleh made some spicy remarks earlier this week about Liam Coen and the Jacksonville Jaguars. When speaking to the media ahead of the Niners' Week 4 match-up against the Jags, Saleh insinuated that the Jaguars have a legal sign-stealing system that they've mastered.
"Liam and his staff, a couple of guys coming from Minnesota, they’ve got legally, a really advanced signal stealing type system where they always find a way to put themselves in an advantageous situation. They do a great job with it. They formation you to just try to find any nugget they can. So, we’ve got to be great with our signals and we’ve got to be great with our communication to combat some of the tells that we might give on the field. They’re almost elite in that regard."
... and then followed that up with:
"Whatever nugget they can find, they catch it. They always happen to find themselves in good situations based on the coverage you show. There’s nothing illegal about it. I’m not suggesting that. It’s just, you can tell that they’ve got a can system that’s getting them into a very advantageous position."
The thought process here could have been that Saleh was maybe trying to mess with Coen and the Jaguars before the game and play some mind games with them. Well, after Coen's Jags handed Saleh's Niners their first loss of the year, the post-game antics between the two became must-see TV, as the two had to be separated following the game. It looked like the two men were exchanging words after the game as well and it's unlikely they were swapping addresses for Christmas card season.
Robert Saleh and Liam Coen had to be separated following 49ers' loss to Jaguars
For what it's worth, Saleh said that the system he believed Coen had in place was totally legal so he wasn't accusing him of doing anything the league would frown upon. He wasn't accusing him of running Spygate 2.0 or anything crazy like that. Coen clearly didn't care for the remarks though and made sure the Niners defensive coordinator heard him after the fact.
Mike Florio discussed the moment on Football Night in America leading up to Sunday Night Football and said that, his understanding of the situation was that Saleh was trying to be complimentary with the remarks. I'm sure we'll hear from Saleh following the game (and Coen as well) on the matter and maybe we can have some clarity on what was said. Until then, this is all we have to go off of.