Jaguars’ Liam Coen, 49ers’ Robert Saleh Clash Over Sign-Stealing Accusations

The pregame tiff between San Francisco 49ers defensive coordinator Robert Saleh and Jacksonville Jaguars coach Liam Coen over accusations of “legal” sign stealing by the Jaguars spilled over into the postgame.

Coen could be seen yelling at Saleh as he was being held back by offensive lineman Robert Hainsey following Jacksonville’s 26-21 win over San Francisco on Sunday. Coen was heard shouting “Keep my name out of your mouth” in a video posted by Action Sports Jax.

“No big deal,” Coen said in a postgame interview. “I’m just going to keep that between us right now. That’s it.”

It seemed like a bigger deal than that as the two coaches were yelling at each other as they walked off the field. Saleh had called Coen’s staff “elite” when it comes to stealing defensive signals — in a legal fashion.

Coen brushed aside those remarks when asked during the week and wouldn’t talk about it with the media after the game. But his players saw what had happened and used it as motivation on Sunday.

“You use everything you can,” quarterback Trevor Lawrence said. “If you’re going to give me free fuel, you take it. That’s something that you always do. But at the end of the day you got to go play the game. That stuff doesn’t really matter. You take care of business and execute and find a way to win the game, which we did today. So it feels great.”

Saleh said on Thursday many coaches who worked under Sean McVay on the Rams or Kevin O’Connell in Minnesota are skilled at stealing signs. Coen spent four seasons on McVay’s staff in Los Angeles while Jaguars offensive coordinator Grant Udinski spent the past three seasons working for O’Connell on the Vikings.

“They’ve got legally, a really advanced signal-stealing type system where they always find a way to put themselves in an advantageous situation,” he said. “They do a great job with it. … 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.”

Niners coach Kyle Shanahan said that he believed Saleh was trying to complement the Jaguars staff but that the use of a loaded phrase like “sign stealing” took away from that.

Shanahan said he didn’t see the postgame interaction but said he doesn’t think Coen “should be that sensitive about it.”

“We don’t totally care if coaches are (ticked) off. It has no effect on the game,” he said. “I think Saleh’s having a big mouth about what they’re good at is not illegal, there’s nothing illegal about it. He used the words ‘sign-stealing,’ and headlines (were) made with those couple of words, that gave the perception of that. I don’t think that was the goal.”

Jaguars defensive lineman Arik Armstead, who spent four seasons playing under Saleh in San Francisco, said he believes it’s not a major issue.

“I know coaches get competitive,” he said. “They’re two great coaches and obviously both fiery. I don’t really know what that was about.”

Reporting by The Associated Press. 

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