{"id":905835,"date":"2026-05-31T03:24:29","date_gmt":"2026-05-31T03:24:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/905835\/"},"modified":"2026-05-31T03:24:29","modified_gmt":"2026-05-31T03:24:29","slug":"dre-greenlaw-breaks-silence-on-denver-struggles-after-rejoining-49ers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/905835\/","title":{"rendered":"Dre Greenlaw Breaks Silence on Denver Struggles After Rejoining 49ers"},"content":{"rendered":"

The road to recovery wasn’t easy for Dre Greenlaw<\/a>.<\/p>\n

After tearing his Achilles in Super Bowl LVIII against the Kansas City Chiefs<\/a>, Greenlaw rehabbed and eventually returned to the field in December 2024.<\/p>\n

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He’d finish the 2024 season with just nine tackles in two appearances (both starts) before departing the San Francisco 49ers<\/a> for the Denver Broncos<\/a> in the subsequent offseason.<\/p>\n

Now back with the Niners following his one-year stint in the Mile High City, Greenlaw opened up to reporters on Thursday regarding the challenges he faced as a Bronco.<\/p>\n

\u201cLast year was tough, real tough,\u201d Greenlaw said via NBC Sports’ Jennifer Lee Chan.<\/a> \u201cBut it’s just part of ball, it’s part of life. Life [doesn\u2019t always go] the way you want it to go. I had to learn a lot about myself last year, take a step back.\u201d<\/p>\n

Not only was Greenlaw forced to rehab from likely the most demoralizing injury a football player can sustain, but he was also tasked with learning an entire new defensive system.<\/p>\n

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During his final season with San Francisco<\/a>, Greenlaw was operating as a weakside backer in former defensive coordinator Nick Sorensen’s 4-3 base defense.<\/p>\n

Upon arriving in Denver, he became an inside backer in Vance Joseph’s 3-4 base defense.<\/p>\n

Despite all the action that led Greenlaw back to the Bay Area, including turning down an extension from the Niners during the same offseason he left, the 29-year-old believes it was all part of the process.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m thankful that everything did happen the way it did, because I’m here now,\u201d Greenlaw said. \u201cNo telling what happens if I take that offer then. We all know that last year was a tough year, so you just never know how it would have went, but I’m happy to play football.”<\/p>\n

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Greenlaw re-arrived in San Francisco amid an overhaul of the defense that included fellow outside additions Osa Odighizua, Nate Hobbs<\/a> and Jack Jones \u2014 along with incoming rookies Romello Height, Gracen Halton, Ephesians Prysock<\/a> and Jaden Dugger.<\/p>\n

In new-Niners defensive coordinator Raheem Morris’ multiple schemes, Greenlaw will serve as the depth piece San Francisco was desperately missing last season.<\/p>\n

While he’s unlikely to have the same impact he did prior to the Achilles tear with the Niners next season, reuniting him with a healthy Fred Warner<\/a> positions San Francisco to deploy a much-improved linebacking core as it looks to compete in a crowded NFC West landscape.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The road to recovery wasn’t easy for Dre Greenlaw. After tearing his Achilles in Super Bowl LVIII against…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":905836,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2062],"tags":[232,231,258,2426,1160,37457,7,592,13912,110,5392,6,1161,252,9078],"class_list":["post-905835","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-denver-broncos","tag-broncos","tag-denver","tag-denver-broncos","tag-denverbroncos","tag-dre-greenlaw","tag-ephesians-prysock","tag-football","tag-fred-warner","tag-jennifer-lee","tag-kansas-city-chiefs","tag-nate-hobbs","tag-nfl","tag-san-francisco","tag-san-francisco-49ers","tag-the-niners"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/116667053742820724","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/905835","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=905835"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/905835\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/905836"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=905835"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=905835"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=905835"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}