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The 49ers are Expected to Lose Dre Greenlaw in Free Agency

Outside linebacker might be the weakest position on the 49ers.
Grant Cohn|
Feb 6, 2024; Las Vegas, NV, USA; San Francisco 49ers linebacker Dre Greenlaw (57) during a press conference before Super Bowl LVIII at the Hilton Lake Las Vegas Resort. Mandatory Credit: Kirby Lee-Imagn Images
Feb 6, 2024; Las Vegas, NV, USA; San Francisco 49ers linebacker Dre Greenlaw (57) during a press conference before Super Bowl LVIII at the Hilton Lake Las Vegas Resort. Mandatory Credit: Kirby Lee-Imagn Images | Kirby Lee-Imagn Images

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San Francisco 49ers

Outside linebacker might be the weakest position on the 49ers.

They have Dee Winters who has 54 career tackles, and Dre Greenlaw who will be a free agent this week. And the 49ers probably can't afford to re-sign him according to Sports Illustrated's Albert Breer.

"The San Francisco 49ers would like to keep Dre Greenlaw—but there’s some doubt they’ll be able to since he played well enough in limited action coming back from a torn Achilles to drum up a real market," writes Breer.

"Among the available linebackers, he has a pretty solid skill set, and is still just 27 years old coming off his second contract. He should land right around what Derrick Barnes got (three years, $25.5 million) in Detroit."

The 49ers most likely will offer Greenlaw a one-year prove-it deal that would allow him to reenter free agency next season and potentially make even more money after proving he could stay healthy.

But if Greenlaw can get a multi-year deal with guaranteed money from a team this offseason, he should take it. He needs the security. He could go down with an injury at any moment and his career could end.

Which means the 49ers almost certainly will be adding another outside linebacker this offseason. Look for them to add one in the draft because rookies are cheaper than veterans and defensive coordinator Robert Saleh has an eye for linebacker prospects. He's the one who drafted Greenlaw in the first place.

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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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