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Robert Saleh, Liam Coen get into postgame altercation after 49ers DC's sign-stealing comments

FaceProfileby: Thomas Goldkamp09/28/25
Robert Saleh
Photo by Kyle Terada / USA TODAY Sports

Tensions between San Francisco 49ers defensive coordinator Robert Saleh and Jacksonville Jaguars head coach Liam Coen spilled over following Sunday’s game between the two. It had been brewing.

Earlier this week, Saleh accused Coen and his staff of an advanced form of sign-stealing. That type of activity is generally frowned on and famously became a big scandal at Michigan at the college level.

You can see the two being kept away from each other in the video from after the game below. Clearly emotions were running hot.

Saleh’s comments drew some scrutiny around the league and incited a discussion about the alleged sign-stealing practice. So what did he say, exactly?

“Liam and his staff, a couple 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 of it. They formation you to just try to find any nugget they can. So we’ve got to be great with our signals and we’ve gotta be great with our communication to combat some of the tells that we might give on the field.”

Those comments weren’t met well by the Jacksonville coaching staff. Coen responded during the week.

“I’m not gonna speak on that fully right now,” Coen said. “We have a huge game for us coming up, 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. … Again, we’re really trying to focus on a darn good defense.”

Coen did note that his staff does a lot of things offensively to try to uncover tendencies and tells from opponents. That’s seemed to be a major part of what Saleh was referencing.

“We [are] typically by formation, by game plan, by working really hard as a coaching staff throughout the week, trying to get indicators by your formation, motion, shift, pre-snap; 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,” Coen said. “It’s a lot of hard work that goes into game-planning.”

In any case, don’t expect either coach to be sending the other any Christmas cards any time soon. But at least the tensions on the field between Saleh and Coen stopped at yelling, it appears.