Ever since the New York Jets signed free-agent safety Lamarcus Joyner – giving them three viable safeties in Joyner, Marcus Maye, and Ashtyn Davis – a narrative has floated around that Robert Saleh commonly utilized three safety looks in San Francisco, and that he is going to do the same in New York.
I am not sure where that notion emanated from. Using three safeties was not a feature of Saleh’s defense, at all.
Robert Saleh’s lack of three-safety usage
In each of the 49ers’ games from 2019 to 2020, Saleh deployed two safeties that took the field for every single play – generally the extent of his safety usage.