NFL Spygate part II? Niners Saleh calls out Jaguars coaching tactics

Transcript

00:00You can see it on tape when they're studying. It's like, damn, how'd they know to be in that

00:03call at that time? And, you know, we've experienced it with the Rams a little bit,

00:07but it's not an uncommon thing. They're just, this group of people, they're pretty damn good

00:12at it. Those comments from San Francisco defensive coordinator Robert Salah have ignited a bit of a

00:18controversy ahead of the Niners' matchup with Jacksonville on Sunday. Anytime sign stealing

00:23is mentioned, things get spicy. Salah referred to the term on Thursday when asked what the biggest

00:31challenge is when facing the Jaguars and their new coaching staff. They've got a legally a really

00:38advanced signal stealing type system where they always find a way to put themselves in an

00:44advantageous situation. They do a great job with it. They formation you to try to just try to find

00:49any nugget they can. So we've got to be great with our signals and we've got to be great with

00:53our communication and to combat some of the tells that we might give on the field. He didn't stop

00:59there. Salah experienced some of the same tactics while head coach of the New York Jets and said

01:04the system has been perfected by those from the Sean McVay coaching tree, which includes Liam Cohen

01:11and Jacksonville offensive coordinator Grant Udinski, a former assistant with Minnesota's Kevin O'Connell.

01:17They're almost elite in that regard. That whole entire tree from Sean to Kevin O'Connell to all

01:22those guys, they all do it. So, you know, so there's challenges. They're going to catch us

01:27in some situations where they have the advantage and we just got to play good sound fundamental

01:31football and do our best to execute them. Cohen in his first season as Jaguars head coach was asked

01:39about the comments on Friday and initially didn't want to talk about it, but then decided to explain

01:44how figuring out an opponent's tells is part of the job. We have kind of typically by formation,

01:52by game plan, by working really hard as a coaching staff throughout the week, trying to get indicators

01:59by your formation, motion, shift, pre-snap. Those are the things that you're trying to do as a coach.

02:06If you're, you know, trying to put your players in the best position to be successful, whether it's

02:11attacking man or zone coverage with your formations, motions, and concepts.

02:18The NFL's most famous sign-stealing scandal, Spygate, took place in 2007. Eric Mangini,

02:25the head coach of the New York Jets, accused the New England Patriots, his former team,

02:29of videotaping opposing teams' defensive signals during games. An investigation found New England

02:36taped over 40 games from 2000 to 2007. The league fined head coach Bill Belichick $500,000.

02:44The Patriots were fined $250,000 and lost their 2008 first-round draft pick. Again, the Jaguars'

02:51sign-stealing is legal and simply refers to a team trying to find an opponent's tendencies and tells,

02:59but hearing one coach call out another staff for those tactics certainly adds a bit of juice to

03:04Sunday's matchup. The undefeated Niners, by the way, are three-point favorites against the two-and-one

03:10Jaguars. For Straight Arrow News, I'm Chris Francis.