Niners DC Robert Saleh admits 'wrong choice of words' after sign-stealing flare-up with Jaguars HC Liam Coen

Both San Francisco 49ers defensive coordinator Robert Saleh and Jacksonville Jaguars head coach Liam Coen appear ready to move on after a heated postgame confrontation.

Coen was seen confronting Saleh after the Jaguars' 26-21 win over the Niners on Sunday, over some comments made earlier in the week in which the coach alleged the Jaugars were engaging in legal sign-stealing. Coen yelled "keep my name out of your mouth" before being pulled back by his own players.

Saleh, however, appeared to want to provide a rebuttal.

Coen downplayed the incident in his subsequent news conference, saying “Not a big deal. We’ll keep that between us.” Two days later, Saleh indicated the same, and also gave a mea culpa about calling what the Jaguars were doing "sign-stealing."

From ESPN's Nick Wagoner:

"It is all good. Whatever happened on Sunday doesn't change how I feel. In my heart, I genuinely was trying to give a compliment and I own the fact that I probably used the wrong choice of words, but however you want to word it, I mean, they're really, really good at putting their players in position to be successful. 

"As coaches, we're always chasing leverage. They're trying to have winning leverage. We're trying to take leverage away and everyone in the league is trying to find every avenue they can. As a coach watching their tape, I recognize the amount of hours that must be spent to be able to build formations and define every little indicator they can to give their players a chance to be in a successful position. That's exhausting and every team does it. Some do it better than others and it was my way of acknowledging that these guys are really, really, really good at it. And like I said, Sunday doesn't change that. 

"I think Liam's doing a hell of a job. I really do. You can tell that that team's really taking on his personality and I hope they came out of the game healthy and I wish him the best of luck throughout the rest of the season. I wish I could have found a better choice of words, but my intent was always to compliment that football staff."

In case you need a refresher, he's what Saleh was saying Thursday:

“Liam [Coen] and his staff, a couple of guys coming from Minnesota, they've got — legally — a really advanced signal-stealing type system where they always find a way to put themselves in an advantageous situation,” Saleh said on Thursday. “They do a great job with it. They formation you, they just try to find any nugget they can, so we've got to be great with our signals and we've got to be great with our communication to combat some of the tells that we might give on the field. They're almost elite in that regard, that whole entire tree from Sean [McVay] to Kevin O'Connell to all those guys. They all do it.”

ASSOCIATED PRESS

As Saleh stressed, sign-stealing is legal in the NFL, up to a point. Teams are allowed to use TV tape and all-22 film to figure out signals ahead of time, and can also have their own staff in the press box tring to break down signals in real time during games. It could be seen as gamesmanship to an unhealthy degree, but that's hardly a viable argument in a league where every minor advantage is usually stressed until it isn't an advantage for anybody.

Could this incident be a jumping-off point for a discussion about the role of sign-stealing in the NFL? Maybe, but don't expect Coen or Saleh to add to their contributions.