Dre Greenlaw Opens up About Leaving the 49ers in Free Agency

Almost every free agent who departed the San Francisco 49ers this offseason was easy to stomach.

However, the one free agent the 49ers are kicking themselves for letting get away is linebacker Dre Greenlaw. They underestimated his market.

So when the Denver Broncos offered him a deal, John Lynch and Kyle Shanahan immediately flew to Greenlaw with an offer and a plea.

Unfortunately, it was too little too late. Greenlaw elected to sign with the Broncos, making the 49ers pay for underestimating his value.

On Tuesday, Greenlaw spoke publicly for the first time since joining the Broncos, where he opened up about leaving the 49ers in free agency.

“It wasn’t easy, of course, but they wanted me,” Greenlaw said. “Throughout the whole time I was talking to Sean, there was no ifs, ands, buts, maybes, this or that. It was like ‘Man, we want you to be here.’ I was a foster kid growing up, so it’s not a lot of times people just wanted me, you know what I’m saying? It just made me feel special, it made me feel like this is the place where I needed to be.”

All Greenlaw wanted out of the 49ers was for them to show him that they wanted him. It wasn’t until the Broncos approached him that the 49ers sprang into action.

Doing so was a sign of disrespect to Greenlaw. Had the 49ers been proactive and not reactive, it’s likely Greenlaw would remain.

Instead, the 49ers have a gigantic question mark at the linebacker position outside of Fred Warner. He surely would’ve loved for Greenlaw to have remained.

However, the 49ers thought the market would show Greenlaw his value was low. Then, the Broncos came in with an offer that surprised the 49ers.

There is the aspect of Greenlaw wanting to be the No. 1 linebacker, which surely has truth to it. But given Greenlaw’s comments, it seems all the 49ers needed to do was get to him first. 

Of all the free agents that left the 49ers this offseason, Greenlaw is the one whom they will look back on with regret for not re-signing.

“I wanted to be where I was accepted, where I was wanted, and this was the right place for me.”