The good news: Robert Saleh is back as the 49ers defensive coordinator.
The bad news: He might not stick around past the upcoming season.
Saleh is one of the best defensive coordinators in the NFL -- he will make the 49ers defense better even though it just lost six starters. He's that good.
He's so good, that the 49ers are going to give him a bunch of rookies in a couple weeks, and some of those rookies will be expected to start.
If Saleh's defense struggles, no one will blame him because he'll have so many rookies on the field. But if his defense does well, he most likely will be a hot head-coaching candidate once again next offseason.
The 49ers aren't necessarily Super Bowl contenders right now. They're going through a recalibration year, which means they're taking on lots of dead salary cap penalties so they can spend more money in the future. Ideally, they'd like to keep Saleh around for a few years so he's here when the next Super Bowl window opens.
But the 49ers might not be so lucky. All he needs is one good season with a young unit that lacks top-end talent and he could be gone.
Which means the 49ers can't take this season for granted. It might be the last season they have with Saleh. If they get off to a good start, they should make a trade and go all-in as they did in 2019 when they traded for Emmanuel Sanders at the deadline.
Don't take Saleh for granted.
