Jaguars HC Liam Coen responds to 49ers DC Robert Saleh's sign-stealing accusation

San Francisco 49ers defensive coordinator Robert Saleh opened up a can of worms this week when he claimed the Jacksonville Jaguars have a "really advanced signal-stealing type of system."

Saleh told the media the 49ers needed to be great with their signals when playing the Jaguars on Sunday because certain tells could be picked up by Jacksonville head coach Liam Coen and his staff.

During his news conference on Friday, Coen was asked to respond to Saleh's accusation. The first-year Jaguars head coach declined to address the comment specifically but praised his defense.

“I’m not going to speak on that fully right now,” Coen said, via Saad Yousuf of The Athletic. “(We) have a huge game for us coming up this weekend. We’ve got a great defense that we’ve got to go and attack, and that’s where our whole mindset and mentality is right now.”

The Jacksonville Jaguars will look for San Francisco 49ers tells

When asked if it's a coach's job to dissect certain tells of an opponent, Coen confirmed the Jaguars try to figure out what indicators opposing teams use during game prep. He argued that's the best way to put players in a situation to succeed.

"We have kind of typically, by formation, by game plan, by working really hard as a coaching staff throughout the week, trying to get indicators by your formation, motions, shifts, pre-snap,” Coen said. “Those are the things you’re trying to do as a coach if you’re trying to put your players in the best position to be successful, whether it’s attacking man or zone coverage with your formations, motions and concepts."

It's up to Saleh to figure out how to proceed with the knowledge that the Jaguars will look for tells. Teams should switch up their signal process from week to week so that other teams have to stay on their toes.

However, the 49ers can use such tells to their advantage this week by disguising their scheme based off former tells and doing the opposite on a play. That's a part of coaching, and it did Saleh no good to complain about it. In fact, airing the grievance publicly might have been the worst thing for Saleh to do.