Son of 49ers franchise legend joining Niners coaching staff

The San Francisco 49ers are adding Miami Dolphins assistant Roman Sapolu to their coaching staff, according to KRPC’s Aaron Wilson.

Sapolu is the son of 49ers legend Jesse Sapolu, who won four Super Bowls with the franchise as an offensive lineman. The elder Sapolu played for San Francisco from 1983-97, starting 154 games for the franchise after being taken in the 11th round (289th overall) of the 1983 NFL Draft.

Roman Sapolu joined the Dolphins as an offensive assistant in 2024. Prior to that, he was the offensive line coach at Hawaii for two years, earning a promotion to co-offensive coordinator in his second season there. He’s also spent time as an offensive line coach at Fresno State (2019-21) after spending the summer of 2018 with the 49ers as a part of the NFL’s Minority Coaching Fellowship, working with the offensive line.

Sapolu had a four-year playing career at Oregon State and transitioned into coaching afterwards, earning a graduate assistant role at Nebraska from 2015-17.

Now, he’s joining the 49ers after working under Mike McDaniel for two years.

The 49ers have seen a couple of shakeups on their coaching staff this offseason, losing Robert Saleh and Gus Bradley to the Tennessee Titans. Defensive backs coach Daniel Bullocks also accepted a job with the Green Bay Packers. However, pretty much all of the offensive staff has remained intact, as offensive coordinator Klint Kubiak wasn’t hired for a head coaching role.