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Can the 49ers Afford to Let Dre Greenlaw Leave in Free Agency?

From 2019 to 2023, the 49ers were one of the best teams in the NFL. And while Dre Greenlaw certainly was not their best player, he was the soul of the team.
Grant Cohn|
January 20, 2024; Santa Clara, CA, USA; San Francisco 49ers linebacker Dre Greenlaw (57) celebrates after defeating the Green Bay Packers in a 2024 NFC divisional round game at Levi's Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Kyle Terada-Imagn Images
January 20, 2024; Santa Clara, CA, USA; San Francisco 49ers linebacker Dre Greenlaw (57) celebrates after defeating the Green Bay Packers in a 2024 NFC divisional round game at Levi's Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Kyle Terada-Imagn Images | Kyle Terada-Imagn Images

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San Francisco 49ers

From 2019 to 2023, the 49ers were one of the best teams in the NFL. And while Dre Greenlaw certainly was not their best player, he was the soul of the team.

Without him this season, the 49ers defense was decidedly soft. They weren't violent. They couldn't stop the run. When he made his season debut Week 15 against the Rams, he instantly transformed the 49ers defense into the elite unit we remember it being.

That's why Pro Football Focus says Greenlaw is the one free agent the 49ers can't afford to lose in free agency.

"Re-signing Greenlaw comes with inherent risk, given the multitude of injuries he’s dealt with over the past 12 months," writes PFF analyst Dalton Wasserman. "He’s a vital part of the 49ers’ run defense, though, and his absence was a big reason for the team ranking 28th in PFF run-defense grade this season. Surely, San Francisco will spend some of its resources improving the defensive line, as well, but Greenlaw’s presence would give the team some peace of mind on that side of the ball."

If the 49ers felt confident that Greenlaw could play a full season or most of one, they definitely should re-sign him. But Greenlaw didn't play a full game in 2024 without getting injured. He appeared in two games and left both of them early.

The 49ers can't keep investing in older, injury-prone players. They need to trust in their ability to draft and develop young players. That's what they did with Greenlaw.

Now it's time to find the next Greenlaw.

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Grant Cohn
GRANT COHN

Grant Cohn has covered the San Francisco 49ers daily since 2011. He spent the first nine years of his career with the Santa Rosa Press Democrat where he wrote the Inside the 49ers blog and covered famous coaches and athletes such as Jim Harbaugh, Colin Kaepernick and Patrick Willis. In 2012, Inside the 49ers won Sports Blog of the Year from the Peninsula Press Club. In 2020, Cohn joined FanNation and began writing All49ers. In addition, he created a YouTube channel which has become the go-to place on YouTube to consume 49ers content. Cohn's channel typically generates roughly 3.5 million viewers per month, while the 49ers' official YouTube channel generates roughly 1.5 million viewers per month. Cohn live streams almost every day and posts videos hourly during the football season. Cohn is committed to asking the questions that 49ers fans want answered, and providing the most honest and interactive coverage in the country. His loyalty is to the reader and the viewer, not the team or any player or coach. Cohn is a new-age multimedia journalist with an old-school mentality, because his father is Lowell Cohn, the legendary sports columnist for the San Francisco Chronicle from 1979 to 1993. The two have a live podcast every Tuesday. Grant Cohn grew up in Oakland and studied English Literature at UCLA from 2006 to 2010. He currently lives in Oakland with his wife.

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