The 49ers announced the hirings of nine assistant coaches, including two members who have been retained from Chip Kelly's staff.
Jason Tarver, who coached outside linebackers last season, has been placed in the new role of senior defensive assistant under first-year coach Kyle Shanahan. And Jeff Hafley will return as the 49ers’ defensive backs coach.
The 49ers officially announced the hiring of defensive coordinator Robert Saleh. Shanahan publicly confirmed Saleh’s appointment earlier on Friday.
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SIGN UP HERE The other additions to the staff are Richard Hightower as special teams coordinator, defensive line coach Jeff Zgonina, linebackers coach Johnny Holland, defensive quality control coach Bobby Slowik, and Marquis Johnson and Dustin Perry as strength and conditioning assistants.
Tarver, 42, has served two stints as a 49ers assistant coach in a variety of different roles. Shanahan becomes the seventh different head coach under whom he has worked, following Steve Mariucci, Dennis Erickson, Mike Nolan, Mike Singletary, Jim Tomsula and Chip Kelly.
He served as co-defensive coordinator/inside linebackers for one season at Stanford under David Shaw before working as defensive coordinator three seasons with the Oakland Raiders. Tarver coached outside linebackers last season under Kelly.
Hafley, 37, remains as the 49ers’ defensive backs coach. Hafley and Shanahan worked together on Mike Pettine’s staff with the Cleveland Browns in 2014.
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Zgonina played for seven teams in 17 NFL seasons. Zgonina, 46, left his post as assistant defensive line coach with the New York Giants to join the 49ers. Zgonina finished his playing career with the Texans from 2007 to ’09. Shanahan was in Houston in 2008 and ’09.
Richard Hightower, 36, a former college teammate of Shanahan, will be the 49ers’ special-teams coordinator. Hightower and Shanahan were teammates at the University of Texas and they worked on the same NFL coaching staffs with Houston (2006-08), Washington (2010-13) and Cleveland (2014).
In 2015, Hightower was the 49ers’ assistant special teams coach under Thomas McGaughey. He worked in the same role last season with Chicago.
Holland, 51, spent last season as the inside linebackers coach for the Cleveland Browns. Prior to Cleveland, he spent three years in the Canadian Football League, coaching linebackers with the Saskatchewan Roughriders (2013) and B.C. Lions (2014-15).
Henderson, 47, was the defensive passing game coordinator with the Atlanta Falcons last season. He spent the previous four seasons as the Dallas Cowboys’ secondary coach. He has coached in the NFL for 10 seasons with the Jets, Browns, Cowboys and Falcons.
Henderson played eight seasons as a defensive back with four different teams after being a 1991 second-round selection of the New England Patriots. He played college ball at Clemson.
Slowik, 29, spent four years with Washington organization. He was video assistant for one season before spending three seasons as a defensive assistant (2011-13). Kyle Shanahan was offensive coordinator in those three seasons in which his father, Mike Shanahan, was the head coach.
Johnson, 31, was an assistant strength coach at the University of Tennessee last year. Perry, 31, spent four years (2012-15) as an assistant strength & conditioning coach at the University of Minnesota.