San Francisco 49ers' first-time defensive coordinator already benefiting from Brandon Staley's influence

Brandon Staley's stock was at a very low ebb following his firing as the Los Angeles Chargers head coach, but he is already making a significant positive impression in his new role with the San Francisco 49ers.

Staley was hired as the 49ers' assistant head coach having interviewed for their defensive coordinator role, which went to an in-house candidate as San Francisco promoted their defensive passing game specialist Nick Sorensen.

Those concurrent hires represented something of an unorthodox solution after the firing of Sorensen's predecessor Steve Wilks.

But, with Sorensen a first-time coordinator and play-caller, the 49ers' thinking in bringing a renowned defensive mind who oversaw the best defense in the NFL in 2020 during his time with the Los Angeles Rams was easy to understand.

And Staley's expertise appears to have already been useful to Sorensen, who sang his new colleague's praises in his first press conference as the 49ers' defensive coordinator on Friday.

"He has experience as a coordinator. He has experience as a head coach. So he sees things holistically," Sorensen said of Staley. "He knows how to build plans. Then just getting him in here and spending extra hours of just talking football with him, he's very bright and really a humble guy who's smart and knows football. That's been really awesome and helpful for me."

"It's more holistic. He's been kind of helping me overall. He's been involved with pretty much everything... I've been kind of talking him through how we play certain things. Watching stuff throughout the league that other teams do, and some of the things that he did -- would this fit? Would it not fit in our defense? And some things I was familiar with from just watching different defenses, you naturally see other defenses do things.

"He's been more connected with the DBs and the nickels, but he also has experience elsewhere with the ends and outside linebackers. But with the staff that we have, I think for me it's going to be really helpful that he's done it before and he's had success, and he's been a head coach as well. Like I said, it's been great."

The 49ers have not properly defined Staley's job description since his appointment was first reported. Sorensen's comments indicate Staley is playing a key role in getting him ready to call plays while also investigating potential tweaks to the defense.

One of the issues with Wilks was that his tweaks, namely a tendency to blitz at unconventional moments, were too much of a departure from what the 49ers have been used to and, at points in the regular season and most critically in Super Bowl 58, had disastrous consequences. 

By pairing a first-time coordinator who has been immersed in the defensive scheme his entire career with a renowned defensive mind whom Kyle Shanahan greatly respects, the 49ers are clearly hopeful they have put together a combination that can deliver more successful alterations to one of the best defenses in the league in recent years.

On the basis of Sorensen's remarks, the early signs are good.