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The 49ers Should Not Re-Sign Linebacker Dre Greenlaw

The 49ers need to find the next Greenlaw in the upcoming draft.
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 have to make a tough decision about Dre Greenlaw this offseason.

An emotional decision would be to re-sign him to a lucrative multi-year extension. Greenlaw has been the heart of the 49ers defense for years -- they are decidedly soft without him. And they have been unable to replace his impact while he has been out.

Both Nick Bosa and Fred Warner have said they want the front office to re-sign Greenlaw this offseason essentially no matter what. Doing so would be a sentimental mistake.

Greenlaw was a great player before he tore his Achilles tendon in the Super Bowl last year. Since then, he hasn't proven he can play a full game without re-injuring himself. That's the hard truth of the matter. He made his season debut against the Rams and couldn't play in the second half. Then he played the following week against the Dolphins and couldn't play after the first drive. Then he missed the rest of the season.

If the 49ers are feeling generous, they can offer Greenlaw a modest one-year deal that would allow him to prove that he can stay healthy for an entire season before cashing in on a contract extension. They should not offer him anything more than a one-year deal. They can't afford to commit themselves long-term to injured players. They already did that last season with Christian McCaffrey and Trent Williams.

The 49ers need to find the next Greenlaw in the upcoming draft.

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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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