The New York Jets shocked the NFL world on Tuesday morning when they fired their head coach Robert Saleh, making him the first head coach to lose his job in the 2024 season. Saleh was the San Francisco 49ers defensive coordinator for four years and helped them get to a Super Bowl during the 2019 season.

The Jets were impressed by Saleh and hired him to take over as their head coach in 2021. Now in his fourth year at the helm and with the Jets not improving, Jets owner Woody Johnson canned Saleh and named defensive coordinator Jeff Ulbrich the interim head coach.

Well, it turns out that 49ers head coach Kyle Shanahan might have played an indirect role in getting his former defensive coordinator fired. According to Albert Breer, Shanahan called the Jets in early 2023 trying to steal Ulbrich from them to replace DeMeco Ryans, who took the Texans head coach job that offseason. Breer said “The Jets said no, but Shanahan’s interest in Ulbrich got Woody Johnson’s attention.”

Kyle Shanahan put Jeff Ulbrich on Jets’ head coaching map

Shanahan has done a bang-up job finding talented defensive coordinators since the 49ers hired him in 2017. The names of defensive coordinators during Shanahan’s head coaching tenure include Saleh (2017-2020), DeMeco Ryans (2021-2022), Steve Wilks (2023), and Nick Sorensen (2024). His interest in Ulbrich likely made Johnson wonder what he was missing there and now he’s giving him a chance to show what he can do as a head coach.

Both Saleh and Ryans went on to earn head coaching jobs. Imagine how filthy this 49ers defense could have been under Ulbrich, who has done a masterful job with the Jets defense. In fact, were it not for a dominant defense in New York, it’s probably safe to say that Saleh would have lost his job earlier. The quarterback play in New York has been abysmal and even with Aaron Rodgers back in the lineup, things didn’t change and Saleh had to go.

With Ulbrich now promoted to interim head coach, could the 49ers try to bring Saleh back? Sorensen has been under some hot water recently after Nick Bosa criticized him and Saleh had a ton of success during his first stint in San Francisco. If he’s willing to come back to the team that first gave him a chance, the Niners would be better because of it.