AFTERSHOCK

As if the 49ers didn’t already lose enough during their tortured 2020 season.

- Craig Massei

Staff shakeup follows disappointing season

They lost their throne as NFC champions, lost their new aura of a young powerhouse on the rise and lost a dizzying avalanche of players to injury or the Reserve/COVID-19 list during a jinxed season that saw San Francisco have a franchise-record and NFL-high 85 players play snaps for the team during the year.

And then the 49ers lost much more, with defensive coordinator Robert Saleh leaving the team in mid-January, setting off a domino series of events that reworked San Francisco’s coaching staff and saw other key assistants leave the team.

Typically, staff shakeups in the NFL happen after 6-10 seasons because changes are deemed necessary after a poor year and the firing of individual assistants are the result. But the most dramatic changes in coach Kyle Shanahan’s staff came as a result of the team’s success, both recent and in seasons past, as Saleh and former passing game coordinator Mike LaFleur both were hired for high-profile positions that took them to the New York Jets.

Four other former San Francisco assistants also followed Saleh to New York. Former offensive line coach John Benton, former defensive backs/cornerbacks coach Tony Oden, former assistant defensive line coach Aaron Whitecotton and former defensive passing game specialist Mike Rutenberg also hopped on the Saleh train to New York with enhanced coaching titles.

In addition, Martin Mayhew — a key frontoffice figure during the Shanahan/John Lynch regime — also left the 49ers for a higher-profile position with the Washington Redskins, setting off a ripple of change in San Francisco’s personnel department.

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