PFF Ranks 49ers LB Dre Greenlaw 18th Among NFL Free Agents

Considering all the injury issues the 49ers had this season, they probably shouldn't offer Greenlaw a multi-year extension.
Nov 19, 2023; Santa Clara, California, USA; San Francisco 49ers linebacker Dre Greenlaw (57) during the third quarter against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers at Levi's Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Darren Yamashita-Imagn Images
Nov 19, 2023; Santa Clara, California, USA; San Francisco 49ers linebacker Dre Greenlaw (57) during the third quarter against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers at Levi's Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Darren Yamashita-Imagn Images / Darren Yamashita-Imagn Images
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The 49ers will have to make a tough decision regarding Dre Greenlaw soon.

Greenlaw is the heart and soul of their defense. Without him, they're soft. Not having him this season is a big reason they struggled so much.

But Greenlaw will be a free agent in March, and the 49ers might not be able to afford to re-sign him. Pro Football Focus ranks Greenlaw as the 18th-best free agent available in the NFL.

"Greenlaw worked his way back from an Achilles injury he suffered in the Super Bowl last February but was shut down after only 34 snaps in 2024," writes PFF. "He will still likely see a lot of interest in free agency. He excels in coverage, having earned PFF coverage grades of 82.6 and 79.5 over the past two seasons."

To Greenlaw's credit, he looked like he hadn't lost a step when he made his regular season debut against the Rams in Week 15. He was as explosive and violent as ever. But he re-injured himself and didn't play in the second half. Then he started the following week, got injured on the first drive of the game and the 49ers shut him down for the season.

Considering all the injury issues the 49ers had this season, they probably shouldn't offer Greenlaw a multi-year extension. They can offer him a one-year extension if he wants to take a team-friendly prove-it deal and hit free agency again next year.

If some team offers Greenlaw a multi-year deal, he should take it and the 49ers should not match it.

Don't be sentimental.

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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.