49ers announce new assistant hires

March 7, 2022 GMT

SANTA CLARA, Calif. (AP) — The San Francisco 49ers have announced several changes to coach Kyle Shanahan’s staff, with Brian Schneider being hired as special teams coordinator and Bobby Slowik and Chris Foerster sharing the offensive coordinator duties.

The moves announced Monday come after the Niners lost several assistants this offseason, with offensive coordinator Mike McDaniel getting hired as head coach in Miami and taking receivers coach Wes Welker and tight ends coach Jon Embree with him.

Special teams coordinator Richard Hightower was hired for the same job in Chicago and running backs coach Bobby Turner is taking the year off to deal with medical issues.

Slowik, who was a passing game specialist last season, will become passing game coordinator, while Foerster will add the run game coordinator duties to his role as offensive line coach. San Francisco previously split those duties between McDaniel and Mike LaFleur before promoting McDaniel to coordinator last season when LaFleur left for a job with the New York Jets.

Schneider is a long-time special teams coordinator, who previously held that role in 2007-08 for the Raiders and in 2010-20 for the Seahawks.

The Niners made official other moves that had been reported with former ESPN analyst and NFL quarterback Brian Griese getting hired as quarterbacks coach and former Chargers coach Anthony Lynn coming on as an assistant head coach and running backs coach.

The other assistants hired are Stephen Adegoke (defensive quality control), James Cregg (assistant offensive line), Joe Graves (assistant offensive line), Asauni Rufus (offensive quality control), Deuce Schwartz (offensive quality control) and Nick Sorensen (defensive assistant).

San Francisco also promoted Leonard Hankerson from offensive quality control to receivers coach, Klay Kubiak from defensive quality control to assistant quarterbacks coach, and Brian Fleury from offensive quality control coach to tight ends coach.

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