Robert Saleh thinks that the Jaguars have some tricks up their sleeve.
Ahead of Sunday’s game between Jacksonville and the 49ers, Saleh — San Francisco’s defensive coordinator — accused Jaguars head coach Liam Coen of having a “signal-stealing-type system.”
“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 told reporters in a press conference Thursday. “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.”
Saleh, the former Jets head coach, noted the fact that Coen is a disciple of Rams head coach Sean McVay and emphasized that there is nothing inherently illegal about the practice.
“They’re almost elite in that regard. That whole entire tree from Sean [McVay] to [Vikings coach] Kevin O’Connell to all of those guys, they all do it,” Saleh said. “There’s challenges. They’re going to catch us in some situations where they have the advantage and we’ve just got to play sound, fundamental football and do our best to out-execute them.”
When asked about Saleh’s comments, Coen had a blunt response, saying that his mindset is strictly on Sunday’s game.
“I’m not going to speak on that fully right now,” Coen told reporters Friday. “[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.”
Coen then elaborated on what his coaching staff does to put the team in a spot to be the most successful on game day.
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“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 a lot of hard work that goes into game planning and trying to put your players in the best position to be successful.”