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49ers Projected to Offer Dre Greenlaw a One-Year, $6 Million Contract

The 49ers may get to keep Dre Greenlaw on a discount this offseason.

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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The 49ers may get to keep Dre Greenlaw on a discount this offseason.

Greenlaw is scheduled to be a free agent his offseason after playing just 34 snaps in 2024. He spent the majority of the season recovering from a torn Achilles tendon he suffered in the 49ers' Super Bowl loss to the Chiefs last year.

When Greenlaw returned Week 15 against the Rams, he looked as explosive as ever. But he reinjured himself and did not play in the second half. He tried to play the following week against the Dolphins but couldn't make it past the first drive.

Which means Greenlaw probably will have to wait a year to cash in. Until then, he can sign a one-year deal to stay with the 49ers and prove his durability. According to Pro Football Focus, Greenlaw is worth $6 million in 2025 with $5 million guaranteed.

"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."

Signing Greenlaw even to a one-year deal is a risk because of injuries. If he suffers another serious one and misses lots of time, which seems possible at this stage of his career, the 49ers would be in major trouble. Instead of signing Greenlaw, the 49ers could a similar one-year offer to Bobby Wagner or Lavonte David, both of whom are much older than Greenlaw but also much more durable.

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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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