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The Broncos are Signing 49ers LB Dre Greenlaw for 3 Years, $35 Mil

The 49ers now have lost eight starters on the first day of free agency, and they offset those departures by signing blocking tight end Luke Farrell.
Grant Cohn|
Dec 3, 2023; Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA; San Francisco 49ers linebacker Dre Greenlaw (57) talks a with a coach after being ejected against the Philadelphia Eagles during the third quarter at Lincoln Financial Field. Mandatory Credit: Eric Hartline-Imagn Images
Dec 3, 2023; Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA; San Francisco 49ers linebacker Dre Greenlaw (57) talks a with a coach after being ejected against the Philadelphia Eagles during the third quarter at Lincoln Financial Field. Mandatory Credit: Eric Hartline-Imagn Images | Eric Hartline-Imagn Images

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San Francisco 49ers

The 49ers just lost another starter from their defense to the Denver Broncos.

Dre Greenlaw is signing a three-year, $35 million deal with Denver according to The NFL Network's Ian Rapoport. Greenlaw will join Talanoa Hufanga who is signing a three-year, $45 million deal with the Broncos.

Apparently, the Broncos thought more highly of those two free agents than the 49ers did.

Greenlaw is an elite linebacker when healthy -- he's one of the most underrated players in the league. He makes Fred Warner better because Warner relies on Greenlaw's speed and violence.

The 49ers probably wouldn't have made it to the Super Bowl in 2019 without Greenlaw's heroic, last-second tackle at the goal line against the Seahawks in Week 18. That tackle secured the No. 1 seed, a bye week and homefield advantage throughout the playoffs.

In addition, the 49ers might actually have won the Super Bowl in 2023 had Greenlaw not ruptured his Achilles while running onto the field from the sideline. Replacing him won't be easy.

Last year, the 49ers signed veteran De'Vondre Campbell to fill in for Greenlaw while he recovered from his Achilles tear. Campbell was awful, then he got benched and quit the team midgame. Now, Dee Winters most likely will get the first chance to replace Greenlaw, unless the 49ers draft a linebacker early in a couple months.

Regardless, the 49ers now have lost eight starters on the first day of free agency, and they offset those departures by signing blocking tight end Luke Farrell.

Rough day.

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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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