August 23, 2025; Santa Clara, California, USA; San Francisco 49ers defensive coordinator Robert Saleh before the game against the Los Angeles Chargers at Levi's Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Kyle Terada-Imagn Images Kyle Terada-Imagn Images

49ers' Robert Saleh Sends Curious Accusation at Jaguars' Liam Coen

Originally posted on Jacksonville Jaguars on SI
By John Shipley | Last updated Sep 26, 2025 9:30 AM ET

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. -- San Francisco 49ers defensive coordinator Robert Saleh has added quite a bit of intrigue to the Jacksonville Jaguars' Week 4 battle.

Speaking to reporters on Thursday, Saleh seemingly accused the Jaguars and head coach Liam Coen of legal sign stealing. He emphasized the legality of it, of course, but he still let the genie out of the bottle on what could now be a central storyline for Sunday's game.

Saleh's Comments

“Liam [Coen] and his staff, a couple of guys coming from Minnesota, they’ve got a—legally—a really advanced signal stealing type system where they always find a way to put themselves in an advantageous situation," Saleh said. "They do a great job with it. They formation you to try to find any nugget they can. So we’ve got to be great with our signals and we’ve got to be great with our communication to combat some of the tells that we might give on the field."

“They’re almost elite in that regard. That whole entire tree. From Sean [McVay], to Kevin O’Connell, to all those guys, they all do it. So, there’s challenges. They’re gonna catch us in some situations where they have the advantage and we just gotta play good, sound, fundamental football and do our best to execute.”

Morgan Tencza-Imagn Images

When Saleh was asked to explain what exactly the Jaguars are doing and how they are doing it, this is what he had to say.

“That’s the ultimate trick. Whether it’s people from the sideline or whether it’s our individual hand signals—whatever nugget they can find, they catch it. And they always happen to find themselves in good situations based on the coverages shown. And there’s nothing illegal about it. I’m not suggesting that. It’s just, you can tell they have a system that is getting them into a very advantageous position multiple times during the course of a game."

It seems like an odd claim to throw out days before a game, even more so when Saleh has faced coaches from the McVay tree throughout his career and even hired current Rams offensive coordinator Mike LaFleur while he was head coach with the New York Jets.

But Saleh has thrown the gauntlet down. Now we will see how much it really matters.

This article first appeared on Jacksonville Jaguars on SI and was syndicated with permission.

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