San Francisco 49ers head coach Kyle Shanahan has already expressed his confidence in defensive coordinator Robert Saleh a couple of times this week. Cornerback Richard Sherman has also done so. As did defensive lineman DeForest Buckner.
Saleh told reporters on Thursday that he doesn't hear the outside noise, referring to the online criticism he has received this season.
"If you allow yourself to get in a world of things you have zero control over, which is people talking, it just takes away from your ability to do your best at any moment," Saleh said.
General manager John Lynch is the latest to chime in on the Saleh-criticism. He jumped on a Thursday-night KNBR interview and discussed the defensive coordinator.
"We've got a lot of belief in Robert," Lynch said on the "Tolbert & Lund" show. "Is that blind faith? No. It's faith because we know where he's been in his career. We know what his schemes are, what he's teaching. And the bottom line, and I think Saleh would be the first to tell you, when things aren't getting executed, he'll take it and put it on his shoulders.
"We do believe, and we're going to work through this with him. Players have got to take ownership. All the coaches have to take ownership. When we all start doing the little things better, we'll start translating these into wins and people will get off Saleh's back.
"He's a good football coach. I've got a ton of belief in him, as does Kyle. He understands that you've got to go show that, and he's got an opportunity to do that this week against the Rams and the rest of this season moving forward.
"Robert Saleh's a guy, I'll say it again, we have a lot of trust and belief (in him). Like I talked about earlier, we've got to have his back just like everybody's got to have each other's back on this team and fight through these struggles that we're going through."
You can listen to the entire conversation with Lynch below.
