Sports

For four seasons, Robert Saleh was the 49ers’ defensive coordinator under head coach Kyle Shanahan. After middling results from 2017-2018, Saleh coached a dominant unit in 2019 that helped San Francisco reach Super Bowl LIV.

Now Saleh is back with the 49ers after a four-year stint as head coach of the Jets. He told reporters on Thursday that he had no interest in working for another team as DC.

"I have a tremendous amount of respect for this organization,” Saleh said, via Nick Wagoner of ESPN. “They gave me so much and during the first two years, if you think about those first two years as the coordinator in '17 and '18, it wasn't easy, and it could have been very easy for them to move on for me.

“I'm indebted to this organization, to those men for the rest of my life. They stuck with me and we made it happen. We did what we needed to do and the rest is history and I'm excited about the opportunity to get a chance to do it again with them.”

San Francisco ranked No. 2 in yards allowed and No. 8 in points allowed in 2019. New York finished No. 4 and No. 3 in yards allowed in Saleh’s final two full seasons as head coach.

Wide receiver George Pickens said all the right things about his trade from Pittsburgh and the chance at a new beginning in Dallas.

At his introductory video call Thursday, Pickens gave variations of the same answers about his past in Pittsburgh.

"I'm where I'm at right now. I can't look into the past," he said, via Nick Harris of the Fort Worth Star-Telegram.

Pickens had well-documented maturity and accountability issues with the Steelers. He paid more than $200,000 in fines from the NFL and the team combined in 2024, Jonathan Jones of CBS Sports has reported, and coach Mike Tomlin publicly called out Pickens more than once.

Pickens was asked about an outside perspective of his character Thursday.

"I can't change anyone's opinion," Pickens said. "Me, personally, I just continue to grow. Everyone in the world has to grow as you get older and older. I'm just trying to build a winning culture, which they already have at the Cowboys. I'm just glad to be joining."

Pickens said he found out about the trade to the Cowboys "when everyone else found out." The Steelers sent Pickens and a 2027 seventh-round pick to the Cowboys in exchange for a 2026 third-round pick and a 2027 fifth-round pick.

"I feel great," Pickens said. "I like the mojo here. I like the swag. There's a lot of new players I've been meeting. I feel like they have a good thing going, for sure."

The divorce between Pickens and the Steelers was brewing since the middle of the 2023 season. Entering the final year of his rookie contract, the Steelers already had decided they weren't paying Pickens and traded for DK Metcalf as their No. 1 receiver.

Pickens, though, wouldn't bad-mouth his former team.

"This game is just as much of a business as it is football," Pickens said. "It was kind of out of my control. I'm just glad to be here in Dallas and continue the winning culture that they have."

The full schedule for the 2025 NFL season will be unveiled at 8 p.m. ET on Wednesday, May 14, but some of the dates in the calendar will be filled in ahead of that point.

The league announced that the league's six broadcast partners will each announce select games from the schedule from May 12-14. The league did not share which games will be announced, but did say that the designated visiting teams for the league's international games will be revealed on NFL Network on Tuesday.

Designated home teams for those games have been revealed already. The Chargers will be in Sao Paolo in Week One, the Colts will be in Berlin, the Dolphins will be in Madrid, the Steelers will be in London, and the Jaguars, Browns, and Jets will be in London.

NBC, Fox, and Prime Video will make their announcements on Monday, ESPN will be on Tuesday, and CBS and Netflix will share their announcements on Wednesday ahead of the ful release.