San Francisco coordinator Saleh’s coaching style a mix of the greats he’s worked with

MIAMI — The interview was more like a quiz.

Only Robert Saleh already had the answers committed to memory.

Originally asked to be the 49ers linebackers coach under Kyle Shanahan, Saleh talked his way onto the short list for defensive coordinator. When it came time to prove he deserved the job, his early years of grunt work paid off.

“I remember him grinding me, asking every question he ever could,” Saleh said of his interview with Shanahan. “He had so many questions about why things were the way they were, and I was very fortunate I was Gus Bradley’s and Pete Carroll’s original notetaker when this whole [scheme] got created. I was able to tell him every reason why and what things could happen to make the thing evolve to what it’s become here.”

Saleh was low on the totem pole for Carroll’s 2011-13 Seahawks — the “Legion of Boom” defense — but worked under two coordinators who became head coaches (Bradley and Dan Quinn) and five position coaches who became coordinators. Shanahan knew the right answers because he went against the defense every day in practice as

Quinn’s offensive coordinator in Atlanta.

Six years later, the 49ers think they are on “borrowed time” with Saleh before he becomes a head coach. He coordinated the NFL’s No. 2-ranked total defense and top passing defense behind the 49ers’ run to Super Bowl 2020.

“He’s taken a little bit of every coordinator he’s ever been a part of,” said All-Pro cornerback Richard Sherman, who also migrated from the Seahawks to the 49ers. “He’s even taken some of their coaching styles. You see some of Gus Bradley, some of Dan Quinn, some of Kris Richard, some Ken Norton Jr. You see some of Kyle Shanahan, and that makes for a really good product.”

Saleh followed Bradley to the Jaguars to be linebackers coach (2014-16) and had another job waiting under Bradley — fired as head coach of the Jaguars and hired as defensive coordinator of the Chargers — in 2017.

“I was ready to go to the Chargers but Kyle said, ‘Rob, if you commit to me as linebackers coach then I promise you I will give you a legitimate interview as coordinator,’ ” Saleh said. “It was time for me to try to pave my own way. I felt like if he was legitimate and sincere — which Kyle always is because he is

a man of his word and that’s makes him special — then I would make it hard for him to say no.”

The Browns just said no to Saleh after interviewing him as head coach. The Giants, Panthers, Cowboys and Redskins did not interview him. Mistake?

Saleh’s presence — muscles birthing muscles — matches the animated bursts of energy he shows on the sideline to celebrate big plays. He is a gift to the gods of social media memes. But his soft-spoken insights are more in line with his behindclosed-doors teaching philosophy to practice: He is not a screamer or belittler.

“They are all men and they all want to be treated with respect,” Saleh said. “You expect them to treat you with respect as a coach so you should be able to reciprocate that to make them understand we are all in this together. There is no right way. If you have feedback for me, give me feedback and we’ll find the best way to get this done. It’s not a dictatorship.”

After a disappointing 2018 in which his job appeared to be in jeopardy, Saleh tweaked the defense he grew up in to become mastermind of the version tasked with slowing down the explosive Chiefs. Speed isn’t the only way to stop speed, he says.