There is nobody happier for Dre Greenlaw’s return to the 49ers than Greenlaw himself.

Following his release from the Denver Broncos after only spending one NFL season in the Mile High City, Greenlaw signed a one-year, $7.5 million contract to come back to San Francisco.

The 28-year-old linebacker shared that he was pushing to re-sign with the 49ers during the 2025 offseason prior to eventually signing a three-year, $31.5 million deal with the Broncos.

“I’m feeling like damn, a totally new different feeling for me,” Greenlaw said on “The Set with Terron Armstead” show. “Like I’ve always been a Niner. Always wanted to be a Niner. Never thought about being nothing else.

“If somebody did come offer me and the Niners weren’t willing to offer as they had said, it might be a team that comes offer me and they may not be able to match it, or this or that. So I knew that it’d be a case that I could be going somewhere but I made sure [with] my agent, ‘Hey man, make sure you tell the 49ers about whatever decision we decide on.’

“But I always had them in the loop like Kyle even told me, ‘Before you get your final offer, let me know.’ Going through the process of it, trying to make it happen with the Niners, and then all of a sudden, Denver, they called me and they stayed in touch with me. [The] Niners, they really [weren’t] so much talking to me at the time … It just really didn’t seem like I was even part of the team really.”

Although the 49ers offered Greenlaw a contract in 2025, they essentially fell short during an offseason in which they also lost safety Talanoa Hufanga and wide receiver Deebo Samuel in free agency.

“ ‘Congrats to Dre, but we’re not going to be able to match the offer,’ ” Greenlaw shared a message San Francisco sent to his agent. “ ’We appreciate you. We just wish him the best of luck for the rest of his career.’ I got the message sent to my phone, so I’m like, ‘Damn, okay.’

“[My agent] sent that to my phone, what the Niners sent to him, and in my head, I’m like, ‘I’m not going to keep bugging these folks.’ I had to call these folks twice without my agent knowing that I called them because I feel that tight with Shanahan… Basically, I end up committing to the Broncos, right? So, I committed to the Broncos, and I’m like, ‘S–t, this is what it is.’ We tried to do it for the 49ers. It is what it is.”

Greenlaw was selected by the 49ers in the fifth round of the 2019 NFL Draft and played the first six seasons of his career in San Francisco.

“It really sucked to have to go through, obviously, the offseason and what went down,” Greenlaw added. “Because the whole year I was listening to my son [sing] ’49ers Faithful ride with me.’ He’s like, ‘Put the 49ers song on, put the 49ers song on!’ I’m like, ‘Man, you gotta cut that out, I’m playing for the Broncos!’ “

Reunited with his 49ers teammates such as Fred Warner and Nick Bosa, Greenlaw gets a fresh slate and can re-spark his career with the team that drafted him in 2019.

If he stays healthy, Greenlaw can return as the constant energizer that San Francisco’s defense severely lacked and contribute to the team that frequently struggled slowing down its opponent’s running attack during the 2025 season.

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