49ers LB Dre Greenlaw earned an unfortunate injury update ahead of Week 17.
While the 2024 NFL season hasn't gone particularly well for pretty much anyone on the San Francisco 49ers, one of the players fans have to feel the most sorry for is Dre Greenlaw, the long-time weakside linebacker who only played 52 snaps over the course of the season – 46 in Week 15, six in Week 16 – before leaving the field with a calf injury.
With the 49ers eliminated from the playoffs and just two games left to play before they head off into a relatively uncertain offseason, will fans see Greenlaw again in 2024? Well, reporters asked head coach Kyle Shanahan that very question on Monday during his first media session of Week 17 and let it be known that he isn't sure but kind of doubts it.
“My gut is most likely that he’ll end up being shut down,” Shanahan told reporters. “But that’s, I’ve got to wait to talk to Dre on that and we’ll still make sure to see exactly how he is doing, because right now we just have it as just soreness and stuff. But that’ll definitely be a decision that I’ll leave up to Dre depending on what his health is.”
Would it be cool for Greenlaw to retake the field and go off with nothing but pride on the line? Sure, but if he were to suffer another setback and had the start of the 2025 NFL season called into question, that would be incredibly disappointing for all parties involved.
Asked how Greenlaw felt about his season so far, which clearly hasn't gone as planned for the sixth-year pro, Shanahan noted that he'd been an emotionally taxing affair, as he was incredibly excited to return to the field after suffering an Achilles injury in the Super Bowl back in February.
“Yeah, I think it’s been a huge emotional deal. Hurt it in the Super Bowl like that and how dramatic of an injury that can be, just talking to people who have had it. I think it’s been a battle and a hard deal to get back,” Shanahan told 49ers reporters.
“I think he was real emotional in his first game or even his first few practices, just being able to make it and I think it’s been a huge success so far just the fact that he’s gone to this point. I knew when he was complaining about the soreness in those first four plays of the game. I know when we told him he wasn’t going to go back in anymore, he was pretty emotional there because I know how bad he wants to go in and how bad he wants to move on from this. But it’s still part of the process and still something he’s working through. He’s been really inspiring to watch him go through all this.”
Unfortunately for Greenlaw, he had an injury-spoiled season at the worst possible time, as his two-year, $16.4 million contract is set to expire at the end of the season, and the 49ers may be reticent to give him another multi-year, ten-figure contract if they are unsure of his long-term viability, let alone availability. While he could still return on a prove-it deal, that didn't work out so well for his former teammate Emmanuel Moseley, who signed a two-year, $10.1 million contract back in 2021 but, after suffering a Week 5 ACL injury, had to go to the Detroit Lions to find a new NFL home on a prove-it deal.
Will Greenlaw suffer a similar fate? Only time will tell, but after watching De'Vondre Campbell quit on his team in Week 15, maybe49ers general manager John Lynch would prioritize a high-character player like Greenlaw over rolling the dice in free agency or the draft.
