Honoring the Niners Greats: Frank Gore
There is no list of 49ers greats without including one of the best running backs in team and league history, Frank Gore.
Video Transcript
According to CBS Sports insider, Max Zenith, the forty-niners are expected to hire veteran assistant coach, Jerry Gray, to replace departing defensive backs coach Daniel Bullocks, who recently left for the Green Bay Packers.
This move is another step in head coach Kyle Shanahan's efforts to retool the defensive staff alongside new defensive coordinator, Raheem Morris.
Gray arrives in San Francisco with decades of NFL experience, both as a player as a coach.
Formerly a first-round pick for the Los Angeles Rams in nineteen eighty-five, Gray spent six seasons with the franchise before finishing his career with the Houston Oilers and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in nineteen ninety-two and ninety-three, respectively.
His transition from player to coach came quickly as he began coaching at SMU in the mid-nineties before breaking back into the NFL with the Tennessee Titans in nineteen ninety-seven.
During his first stint with the Titans, he helped to guide the Titans to Super Bowl thirty-four, establishing himself as a respected defensive mind.
He later served as a defensive coordinator for the Buffalo Bills from two thousand and one to two thousand and five and went on to coach the defensive backs for both Washington and the Seattle Seahawks.
Gray turned to Ten-- returned to Tennessee as defensive coordinator from two thousand and eleven to two thousand and thirteen before spending extended stretches developing secondaries with both the Minnesota Vikings and the Green Bay Packers.
Most recently, Gray served as an assistant coach, head coach, and defensive assistant with the Atlanta Falcons from twenty twenty-three to twenty twenty-five, where he worked under current NFL defensive coordinator, Raheem Morris.
That connection is significant.
Morris and Gray already have an established working relationship, and it brings familiarity to San Francisco and should ease the transition as the forty-niners look to rebound defensively in twenty twenty-six.
For a team that's built its identity around dominant defense, adding someone like Gray could prove pivotal.
His track record in developing defensive backs and coordinating NFL units gives the forty-niners both stability and experience in a key coaching role.
