The Jacksonville Jaguars are seemingly trending in the right direction under head coach Liam Coen. They've suddenly become a physical team that can win close games even when they can stop shooting themselves in the foot.
Following a gritty win over the Houston Texans in Week 3, the Jags will next travel to the West Coast to take on the San Francisco 49ers. And just before the game, defensive coordinator Robert Saleh made a jarring accusation.
Robert Saleh says the Jaguars can legally steal signals
Robert Saleh talked to reporters ahead of the Week 4 matchup and said that the Jaguars have an advanced way to steal signals that allows them to be one step ahead.
"Jacksonville, this is a very young, but it's a very talented group. Liam and his staff, coming from a couple of guys coming from Minnesota," Saleh said. "You know, they've got a legal, really advanced signal-stealing type system, where they always find a way to put themselves in an advantageous situation. They do a great job with it. They formation you, try to find any nugget they can."
Saleh continued, "So we've got to be great with our signals, and we got to be great with our communication, and to combat some of the tells that we might give on the field. So they're almost the elite in that regard, that whole entire tree, from Sean [McVay] to Kevin O'Connell to all those guys, they all do it. So there's challenges, they're going to catch us in some situations where they have the advantage, and we just got to play good, sound, fundamental football and do our best to execute."
Later in the exchange, Saleh says he cannot do anything about it because it's legal.
"That's the ultimate trick. "Whether it's people from the sideline or whether it's our individual hand signals, whatever nugget they can find, they're going to catch it, and they always happen to find themselves in good situations based on the coverage and show the way. And there's nothing illegal about it. And I'm not suggesting that it's just, you can tell that they've got a can system that's getting them into a very advantageous position multiple times during the course of the game," Saleh said."
Saleh was a frontrunner for the Jacksonville head coaching vacancy after Doug Pederson got ousted. They ultimately went with Liam Coen, and he returned to coach the defense for San Francisco after spending three seasons with the New York Jets.
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Stealing signals wouldn't be enough to help the Jaguras win games
Robert Saleh's comments are baffling when you take into account that he makes it clear that whatever the Jags are doing is legal. It's not like they're taping opponents or anything like that. He also notes that they'll try to take advantage of whatever nugget they can get, and that isn't stealing, far from it. They do their due diligence and prepare for every game.
That Saleh finds it shocking is on him, but as he stated, Jacksonville isn't doing anything wrong. But for the sake of the argument, let's say that they did steal signals. That isn't enough to win a game.
Sure, you can know what your opponent is doing, but you still have to show up and execute. You can know what play or formation the other team is doing, but that doesn't guarantee you'll get beat deep or that your quarterback will make the right read.
The bottom line is that if the Jaguars beat the 49ers in Week 4, it will be because they executed, not because they "legally" steal signals as Robert Saleh suggested.