In just two weeks, the 49ers will welcome the New York Jets to Levi’s Stadium to open up the 2024 NFL season and Kyle Shanahan already has been preparing for the familiar foe.
Facing Jets head coach and former 49ers defensive coordinator Robert Saleh and Jeff Ulbrich, New York's defensive coordinator, will feel like squaring off with old friends.
“[Their scheme] is very similar to ours in what they do with Robert being there,” Shanahan said on Sunday via conference call. “Same type of front style with their D-Line coach coming from here also and got a lot of familiarity with Brick who is one of my favorite coaches in the league, you know, I was with him in Atlanta. So some very similar stuff defensively.”
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Jets defensive line coach, Aaron Whitecotton, spent the 2020 season with the 49ers as Kris Kocurek’s assistant adding another level of familiarity. Shanahan won’t necessarily have an advantage in facing the familiar front as they know how his scheme works as well.
Shanahan and his staff have watched the Jets' three preseason contests but will focus on what the club put on tape during the 2023 regular season when preparing for Week 1. The wildcard, however, is quarterback Aaron Rodgers and what he will be able to bring to the field after spending the entire 2023 season recovering from an Achilles injury.
The All-Pro quarterback was on the field for only four plays before suffering the season-ending injury in Week 1 and did not play at all during the preseason, Shanahan knows very well what Rodgers is capable of.
Still, Shanahan will focus on what can be seen from the Jets' past regular-season contests.
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“It’s a little less of what they do in the preseason and more of their 17 games from last year,” Shanahan said. “That’s more the stuff you watch. We’ll flip on the preseason, but they don’t play a lot of guys. They kind of keep the same scheme and whatever they’re going to change they usually hide.
“That’s what most teams do. So we’ve invested most of our time in last year, but we’ll be covering those three games, we already have, and we’ll continue to do it.”
The 49ers' 2024 season kicks off on Monday, September 9 at 5:15 p.m. PT. at Levi's Stadium.