{"id":853194,"date":"2026-04-04T13:04:20","date_gmt":"2026-04-04T13:04:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/853194\/"},"modified":"2026-04-04T13:04:20","modified_gmt":"2026-04-04T13:04:20","slug":"dre-greenlaw-didnt-believe-the-49ers-would-draft-him","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/853194\/","title":{"rendered":"Dre Greenlaw Didn’t Believe the 49ers Would Draft Him"},"content":{"rendered":"

Dre Greenlaw returning to the San Francisco 49ers has brought about nothing but positive emotions<\/a>. It’s impossible not to view or feel it that way.<\/p>\n

He’s been a beloved player in that locker room and for the fans to cheer for ever since he was drafted. Greenlaw has delivered<\/a> a ton of quality moments for the 49ers.<\/p>\n

However, that almost didn’t happen. Or at least, Greenlaw didn’t think so. When appearing on The Set with Terron Armstead<\/a>, Greenlaw recanted that he believed the 49ers weren’t going to draft him.<\/p>\n

Why Greenlaw thought the 49ers didn’t like him\"Dre<\/p>\n

November 27, 2022; Santa Clara, California, USA; San Francisco 49ers linebacker Dre Greenlaw (57) before the game against the New Orleans Saints at Levi’s Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Kyle Terada-Imagn Images | Kyle Terada-Imagn Images<\/p>\n

“My brother asked me, ‘What team do you feel like you’re not not going to?’ I said, ‘I know I’m not going to San Fran.’ He said, ‘Why do you think that?’ Because during the coming, when I tell you, they ripped me apart. They ripped me apart,” Greenlaw said. <\/p>\n

He went on to say that Kyle Shanahan was the one<\/a> grilling him with questions. Shanahan asked Greenlaw about how closely he watches film and questioned him a ton on his game play.<\/p>\n

The constant questions and critiques is what led him to believe that the 49ers weren’t fond of him. He didn’t feel like the 49ers emerged from that interview feeling great about him.<\/p>\n

“That was the only interview where I think they gave me a backpack or something. I don’t even think I grabbed the backpack. I saw DeMeco in there because DeMeco, we had got tight. I didn’t know everybody else, but I looked at DeMeco and I was like, ‘All right, bro.’<\/p>\n

“Then my agent hit me like, ‘Yea man you got two 30 visits, Dallas and the 49ers.’ and then the 49ers cancelled on me. And I was like, ‘Yea, I know why they cancelled. I ain’t going there.'”<\/p>\n

The writing looked like it was on the wall for Greenlaw to believe the 49ers weren’t going to draft him. It’s understandable after he shared his firsthand experience of the draft process.<\/p>\n

However, that all flipped on the third day of the draft when the 49ers selected him in the fifth round. Surely, it was a shock to him, especially after his visit was cancelled, but it was for a good reason.<\/p>\n

“They said that the reason why they canceled the 30 visits was because they knew then that they was going to get me. They didn’t have to see no more, but I mean, they could have told me that,” Greenlaw said with a smile on his face.<\/p>\n

Now, Greenlaw is back with the 49ers as if he never left.<\/p>\n

Follow Jose on X (Twitter) @JS3sanchezz<\/a> to interact with him on the 49ers and more.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Dre Greenlaw returning to the San Francisco 49ers has brought about nothing but positive emotions. It’s impossible not…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":853195,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2080],"tags":[220,7,6,1161,252,2624,2623],"class_list":{"0":"post-853194","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-san-francisco-49ers","8":"tag-49ers","9":"tag-football","10":"tag-nfl","11":"tag-san-francisco","12":"tag-san-francisco-49ers","13":"tag-sanfrancisco","14":"tag-sanfrancisco49ers"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/116346583685591915","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/853194","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=853194"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/853194\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/853195"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=853194"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=853194"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=853194"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}