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49ers Interview Deshea Townsend to be Their Defensive Coordinator

This is an interesting development.

Grant Cohn

Jan 14, 2023; Jacksonville, Florida, USA; Jacksonville Jaguars cornerbacks coach Deshea Townsend against the Los Angeles Chargers during a wild card playoff game at TIAA Bank Field. Mandatory Credit: Mark J. Rebilas-Imagn Images
Jan 14, 2023; Jacksonville, Florida, USA; Jacksonville Jaguars cornerbacks coach Deshea Townsend against the Los Angeles Chargers during a wild card playoff game at TIAA Bank Field. Mandatory Credit: Mark J. Rebilas-Imagn Images / Mark J. Rebilas-Imagn Images
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This is an interesting development.

In addition to Robert Saleh, the 49ers have interviewed Detroit Lions defensive pass game coordinator and defensive backs coach Deshea Townsend.

Saleh obviously is the 49ers' first choice because he coached this defense already and he was highly successful. In addition, he has head-coaching experience with the Jets where he also built an elite defense.

But Saleh also has head-coaching interviews lined up with the Jaguars and the Raiders, which means there's no guarantee that the 49ers will get him. So they need a backup plan.

Enter Deshea Townsend. He's intriguing because he's nothing like Saleh. He's not a Saleh knockoff, which is what Nick Sorensen was. He called a vanilla defense with lots of zone coverage and minimal blitzing. Townsend comes from the Lions who are known for playing man-to-man coverage and bringing heavy pressure. Hiring him would signal a drastic schematic and philosophic shift for the 49ers.

In addition, the Lions currently have one of the strongest cultures in the NFL, as opposed to the 49ers who had more drama and dysfunction than just about any other team this season. Townsend could help rebuild the culture that Shanahan, Saleh and DeMeco Ryans built together years ago.

Townsend played cornerback in the NFL for the Steelers under Bill Cowher and Mike Tomlin, so he has tons of pedigree. His only drawback is his lack of experience. He never has been a defensive coordinator or called defensive plays. Which means he would be a rookie learning on the job, just like Sorensen.

Still, Saleh and Ryans were rookies when they became defensive coordinators for the 49ers and they were excellent. Maybe Townsend could be similar.

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Grant Cohn
GRANT COHN

Grant Cohn has covered the San Francisco 49ers daily since 2011. He spent the first nine years of his career with the Santa Rosa Press Democrat where he wrote the Inside the 49ers blog and covered famous coaches and athletes such as Jim Harbaugh, Colin Kaepernick and Patrick Willis. In 2012, Inside the 49ers won Sports Blog of the Year from the Peninsula Press Club. In 2020, Cohn joined FanNation and began writing All49ers. In addition, he created a YouTube channel which has become the go-to place on YouTube to consume 49ers content. Cohn's channel typically generates roughly 3.5 million viewers per month, while the 49ers' official YouTube channel generates roughly 1.5 million viewers per month. Cohn live streams almost every day and posts videos hourly during the football season. Cohn is committed to asking the questions that 49ers fans want answered, and providing the most honest and interactive coverage in the country. His loyalty is to the reader and the viewer, not the team or any player or coach. Cohn is a new-age multimedia journalist with an old-school mentality, because his father is Lowell Cohn, the legendary sports columnist for the San Francisco Chronicle from 1979 to 1993. The two have a live podcast every Tuesday. Grant Cohn grew up in Oakland and studied English Literature at UCLA from 2006 to 2010. He currently lives in Oakland with his wife.

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