Niners linebacker Dre Greenlaw, shown in 2023, has back-to-back seasons with at least 120 tackles for the 49ers, but injuries have limited him to 10 games in the past two seasons, including eight with the Broncos last year.
Carlos Avila Gonzalez/S.F. Chronicle
Dre Greenlaw left the 49ers for a three-year deal with the Denver last season but was released by the Broncos after eight games with the team. He is back with San Francisco, for whom he played his first six seasons, on a one-year deal.
Jeff Lewis/Associated Press
Niners linebacker Dre Greenlaw walks off the field after a loss to the Los Angeles Rams at Levi’s Stadium on Dec. 12, 2024. Greenlaw had returned for two games after suffering a torn Achilles tendon in the Super Bowl earlier that year.
Scott Strazzante/S.F. Chronicle
Look for Fred Warner, you find Dre Greenlaw. Neither linebacker participated in the San Francisco 49ers’ open practice this week, yet they appeared no less tethered. Greenlaw seemed at such ease after a long year away.
“After you go to another organization, you just kind of realize all the things that you missed,” Greenlaw said.
Unfortunately for Greenlaw, the 49ers came to their senses too late. As the story goes, general manager John Lynch and head coach Kyle Shanahan hurried out to Greenlaw’s Texas home in the 11th hour last year to try to talk him into staying with the team. Greenlaw had already agreed to terms with the Denver Broncos on March 10, the start of the NFL’s legal tampering period, and was prepared to sign come March 12, the first official day of free agency.
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The standout linebacker, in hindsight, spoke regretfully about his decision to leave.
Greenlaw played only eight games before the Broncos cut him loose one season into his three-year, $35 million contract. A quadriceps injury and hamstring strain derailed his fresh start, adding to an already extensive injury history. He has been sidelined for nearly 40% of his NFL career.
Injuries aside, his time in Denver simply did not measure up. Greenlaw hesitated to say he would make the same choice if given a do-over. But absent a time machine, his stint as a runaway helped him appreciate what he left behind. Now he’s home.
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“I mean, I wouldn’t say that I’d do it again, but I would let it play out just the same,” Greenlaw said.
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The Broncos let go of him on a Tuesday. By the end of the workweek he was a Niner again.
His departure last March was one of timing more than fit, Greenlaw admitted, insisting he struggled to “say yes to this person” in Denver and backtrack just because “this is where I belong” in Santa Clara.
Lynch for his part owned up to the “reactive” bungling of negotiations with Greenlaw. Life goes on.
“It gives you a different perspective on how much the building really means, how much the people inside the building really means to you,” Greenlaw said.
Back to normal, the 49ers project to have Warner and Greenlaw as their starting linebackers. Shanahan was very open about that. A healthy Greenlaw, if he stays that way, fits next to his All-Pro counterpart no differently. De facto assigned seating in meetings has returned. It’s as if last year never happened.
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“It’s really cool when I talk to the team, to sit back there and see those guys shoulder to shoulder,” Shanahan said. “I’ve seen them like that their whole careers together.”
Greenlaw is scheduled to be a free agent once more next offseason. He is under contract for $6 million, which could turn into $7.5 million if all goes well. The reality: Greenlaw has not played a full season since he was a rookie in 2019. His next healthiest stretch came in 2022 and 2023, when he made 15 starts in back-to-back seasons with 127 and 120 tackles, respectively. The 49ers hope for that version of their former fifth-round gem.
But after Greenlaw suffered a freak Achilles tear in Super Bowl LVIII, his health has overshadowed his ability, as he suited up for only 10 games since that injury. He appeared in a couple of games the following 2024 season but exited before the conclusion of both with knee and calf problems on that same left leg.
Greenlaw said it wasn’t until midway through the 2025 season that he “adjusted to the normal” post-Achilles surgery: “I kind of felt like I could go and practice and I could warm up and I could do everything, and I ain’t got to worry about no pain, no nothing, I ain’t got to worry about what shoes I got on. All that kind of stuff. So probably about last year is when I first felt like for at least a week or two or multiple days in a row that I felt like, all right, I’m good to go now.”
He walked into the auditorium at Levi’s Stadium, his playground for six seasons and counting, with a football tucked like a stuffed toy and fiddled with it as he fielded questions. At one point he flipped the ball from one hand to the other, displacing the black foam covering from the podium microphone.
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For someone who had been released from a multi-year deal less than a few months ago, Greenlaw, relegated to a one-year contract at age 29, wore a face of relief rather than one of scorn.
“I ain’t got to do nothing more than what I normally do, and that’s just play football,” Greenlaw said. “I’ve never been a talkative guy, a loud guy that’s doing all this. That’s Fred’s job. I just repeat whatever he say. That’s never really been my role. My role was to go out there and just have fun.”