The opportunity to add defensive line coach Kris Kocurek to the San Francisco 49ers staff was too tempting for Kyle Shanahan and company to pass up. The team decided to fire Jeff Zgonina on January 13, and Kocurek was hired the next day to replace him.
"I don't see myself making any specific changes," Shanahan told reporters on the last day of 2018. "I like our staff a lot. I think we've got some good coaches."
Kocurek brings 10 years of NFL experience working with defensive lines to San Francisco.
"Like Kyle said, there was no plan to make any changes on the staff, and then Kris became available," defensive coordinator Robert Saleh told reporters via the Mercury News on Wednesday in Mobile, Alabama. "He's very well thought of. It really wasn't a knock on Z. I think Z did a really, really nice job but just an opportunity to get a guy who was very experienced. But yeah, it was just one of those things."
The 49ers coaches and staff have been in Mobile, Alabama all week to prepare the South squad for the Senior Bowl on Saturday. Kocurek and new defensive backs coach Joe Woods, however, are not present.
"That was part of my recruiting for them," Shanahan said on Tuesday. "I threw that out there before they said yes. If they'd said yes (immediately), I wouldn't have thrown that out there."
Shanahan has a lot of experience going against Kocurek-style defensive lines. When the defensive line coach became available after the Miami Dolphins fired their coaching staff, the 49ers jumped at the chance to add him.
"I was very excited that he became available," Shanahan said. "He's a guy that I've respected for a long time. I played against his style of coaching for a long time, back when I was a coordinator in the AFC South. Back in 2008, we used to go against that style of defense. I think Jim Schwartz was the coordinator. They had [Jim Washburn] as the D-line coach.
"I hated going against them there when they had [Kyle Vanden Bosch] and [Albert Haynesworth] and [Jevon Kearse]. Then they all went to Detroit, and they trained Kris. So he was kind of the guy they brought up in that system. I hated going against it in Detroit.
"Kris didn't go to Philly, but I had to face the same stuff in Philly when they were out there, and I was in Washington.
"It's a scheme that's very tough to go against. It's not a scheme — a style of play the way their D-line plays. I've heard great things about him, and I really enjoyed talking to him when I interviewed him."
Kocurek may not be in Mobile, but he is already getting to work evaluating the 49ers' personnel. One player under the microscope is 2017's No. 3 overall selection, Solomon Thomas.
"Kris Kocurek is studying him, and we're going to sit down (later to discuss it)," Saleh said via NBC Sports Bay Area. "I want his thoughts (to be) unbiased, so I'm not going to put anything out there right now. He knows what we did last year. He knows where our thoughts are initially. We're going to have him study it."
Once Kocurek presents his unbiased opinion, Saleh and the rest of the coaching staff will decide what they need to do to put Thomas and the rest of the players who make up the defensive line in the best position to be successful.
The 49ers have experimented with Thomas all along the defensive line. He spent much of 2018 on the outside, which has been an adjustment for the lineman and a seemingly unnatural fit given the production he had along Stanford's interior.
"I didn't really play much on the edge at all in college," Thomas told 49ers Webzone during his rookie season. "Just adjusting to that and being able to play on the edge and being able to move back inside with different timing at both levels."
Playing Thomas on the outside wasn't always the goal. The 49ers, like others, initially envisioned him being a force along the interior.
"I think when we drafted him, we felt like where he could be an impact player (is) as an inside pass rusher," general manager John Lynch said in November of 2018. "I hope to see him here in those last six games in those positions, and we can see."
Thomas did receive the opportunity late in the season to show his coaches what he can do along the interior. He enters his third NFL season, which Saleh says is crucial for developing players.
"You know the standard," Saleh said. "You know the defense. You know what's being asked of you. Can you recognize offenses fast enough now to be able to trigger and do things at a higher level? Usually, a third year is a great year for players to play.
"I've been out here. I've seen the split. I've seen this release before. How quickly can you recognize it so now you can go make plays? It's going to be a big year in terms of offensive identification for these guys to really showcase how good they've gotten."
