Dre Greenlaw’s lone season in Denver never had a chance to settle in. By the time the former 49ers linebacker was trying to find his footing with the Broncos, he was already dealing with a severe quad strain, a stint on injured reserve, and the kind of frustration that can swallow a year whole.
Greenlaw, who left San Francisco after six years and signed a multi-year deal in free agency, said the experience came with “some dark moments.” In a recent interview with The Athletic, he described a year that kept him separated from teammates and stuck around trainers more than he ever wanted.
“There were some dark moments,” Greenlaw told Michael Silver in a recent interview. “It’s tough, because I never got a chance to give them all I had.
There’s so much anger, frustration, and you just want to go out there and prove [your worth] to everybody, but you can’t. There were times when it was like, ‘Man, I don’t want to show my face in this building.’
Tough year.”
The injury trouble started almost immediately. Greenlaw strained his quad just two days into OTAs, which sent him to injured reserve for the first six games.
A hamstring issue followed later, and the season never really found a rhythm. He ended up playing only eight games and finished with 43 tackles.
On top of that, he also dealt with a suspension after an altercation with a referee.
Greenlaw said the early injury changed the way people around him looked at him. He felt coaches lose confidence, and he spent much of the year isolated from the rest of the roster.
The move to Denver also came with another adjustment he didn’t fully anticipate: the altitude. He said the dry air affected his sleep and recovery, and that he was “fighting demons left and right.”
Weight gain from limited activity only added to the frustration. His close friend Azeez Al-Shaair noticed the change and said Greenlaw’s mind got the best of him.
The challenge wasn’t just physical, either. After so many years in San Francisco, Greenlaw had to learn a new scheme and a new culture all at once.
The Broncos moved on in March, releasing Greenlaw before he quickly landed back with the 49ers on a one-year deal worth $7.5 million. He took responsibility for how things unfolded in Denver, saying he pushed too hard too soon while still recovering from previous Achilles and calf injuries.
“I don’t blame anything on the Broncos,” he told Silver. “Coming off the Achilles and the calf [injuries], I just wasn’t in the shape that I needed to be to go out there with them and give it all I got.
I should have taken it slow. [But] naturally, they’d just paid me, so that’s all I wanted to do - go show them what I could do.
And it bit me in the a-, the second day I got there.”
Now back in California, Greenlaw says the difference is obvious. He noted that the air feels different, he can run all day, and he feels at home again.
Al-Shaair believes the linebacker is at his best when he has the right people around him, and Greenlaw sounds like a player who’s ready to move forward. He sees the comeback as a happy ending and plans to keep proving people wrong.
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