I would not call him fantastic, even as a DC. But he is a good DC. In 2021 we had #32 rated scoring defense by a fairly wide margin. He did have a lot of scrubs then or younger guys, so I wouldn't blame him too much for it, but we can say with 100% certainty he didn't overperform the talent he had. In 2022 we had #4 rated defense, which was his best performance, but there is a little bit of a catch there. We were bottom 4 in takeaways. Still, it is fair to say it was a top 10 unit in NFL. However, if you look at the talent we had, we also had top 10 talent. So, I am not really sure if he outcoached the talent we had, but it was a good performance on defensive side. In 2023 we had #12 defense and #10 in takeaways. Not unlike a year before this was perhaps a top 10 unit again. And again, there was some top end talent on the team. Last year defense regressed even with him in the 1st 5 games, but the wheels fell off after he left. We finished #20 overall. Had he stayed, could we have finished #10 again? Just looking back at the SF game, and without JJ, Huff, and JFM, I think we would have struggled to do so. Saleh to me is someone who can develop young D players. He keeps the defense simple, vanilla, which allows him to play up to the level of the talent he has but not really exceed it. And you could see the same pattern in SF as well. He had bottom 5 defense in 2018. Got injections of talent in 2019 and he had #8 defense in 2019. When Bosa got hurt in 2020, he slid to #17. He is a good defensive coach who can put out a good defense if he has good players. But I would stop short of calling him a fantastic one. Actually looking back at last year, with Glenn finishing #7 in defense and #8 in takeaways given all the injuries is probably more impressive than any season Saleh has ever had in his career.
Some coaches need great players, some coaches create great players. Saleh hasn’t created a single great player I can recall.
