Atlanta Hawks hire former 49ers coach Ben Peterson

The 49ers suddenly have a major opening on their coaching staff.

Former 49ers head of player health and performance Ben Peterson has been hired by the Atlanta Hawks as vice president of player health and performance, according to NFL Network’s Tom Pelissero .

Prior to working with the 49ers, Peterson was the head of sports science for the NHL’s Philadelphia Flyers for two seasons. Then, in 2019, the 49ers fired strength and conditioning coach Ray Wright and head coach Jeff Ferguson and hired Peterson to replace them both. And Peterson has had mixed results.

Until last season, Peterson’s tenure was marred by a series of nagging injuries that preceded him. He didn’t seem to have the answer for why the 49ers ranked year after year as one of the NFL’s most injured teams for a decade until 2023, when the 49ers were finally relatively healthy. Perhaps Peterson understood the underlying problem. Or maybe the 49ers just got lucky. Regardless, he left while his stock was up.

The 49ers must now find a replacement. They could promote assistant player health and performance Cameron Bustos, or head athletic trainer Dustin Little, or assistant athletic trainer Manny Rivera, or director of functional performance Elliott Williams. Or the 49ers could hire someone from outside the organization. This might be a wise decision.

Instead of promoting someone from a team that historically has a lot of injuries each year, hire someone from a team that generally doesn’t have a lot of injuries.

Just a thought.