Dre Greenlaw Reveals Why He ‘Just Wasn’t Happy’ with Broncos
Upon being granted his release by the Denver Broncos, veteran inside linebacker Dre Greenlaw wasted little time in returning to his former home with the San Francisco 49ers.
And in doing so, Greenlaw took the first chance he got to vent about his unhappiness in the Mile High City.
“For me, it was like, the fact that I’m not healthy, I don’t feel that twitch or that gear that I felt like I need to have, but obviously I’m out here trying to do everything I can to be on the field,” Greenlaw recently explained, via NFL.com. “It makes it tough when you pay a guy $11 million and he’s only on the field 50 percent of the time. It made it tough for me. It made it to the point where it kind of makes you not happy.”
“Now I’ve got to slowly come in and take reps from somebody else, which the linebackers were playing really, really good at the time, so now I’m just taking reps from this guy. And now it’s like, OK, we’re splitting reps, how are we going to do it? One week it’s this, one week it’s that, and it’s like, I’ve never been in that position before. Yeah, I just wasn’t happy. That’s really what it boiled down to at the end of the day.”
Greenlaw inked a three-year, $31.5 million contract with the Broncos last offseason to lead the linebacker corps. What the team instead received was a net-negative return on investment, as he started only eight games — missing time due to injury and NFL suspension — while recording 15 solo tackles, two quarterback hits, one sack, and one interception.
Rather than try to make it work with Greenlaw, who expressed difficulty over comprehending Vance Joseph’s defensive scheme, Denver opted to cut bait early. His release, officially designated post-June 1, created roughly $8 million in salary cap space.
On March 13, Greenlaw — who spent his first six seasons in San Francisco — re-joined the 49ers on a one-year deal worth up to $7.5 million.
“Everything works out for a reason. I don’t regret none of it. I’m thankful for it all, for Sean (Payton) and everybody that accepted me into that organization, teammates and all. But, yeah, I’m excited to be a Niner,” he recently said.
Payton Handled Difficult Release Proceedings
The writing was on the wall for Greenlaw in Denver even before he was handed a pink slip, as the Broncos opted to re-sign both unrestricted free-agent linebackers, Alex Singleton and Justin Strnad, spending a combined $33.5 million to retain the pair.
Nevertheless, the Broncos persisted. Speaking earlier this week at the NFL owners meetings in Phoenix, Payton admitted it was “tough” for the club to divorce itself from Greenlaw, in whom they once had loft expectations.
“Here is why: he is so passionate. In my career as a coach, I’ve been lucky enough to coach a lot of passionate players that love the game,” Payton explained Tuesday. “I’m always disappointed internally that that didn’t work out because I love that player. I love how he competes. I love all the things he brings. You feel somewhat responsible when it doesn’t work out. We knew it would take a little bit of time with [ILB] Alex [Singleton] and [ILB] Justin [Strnad]. You’re going to see [OLB Jonah] Elliss take some snaps inside. That is something that we have discussed relative to our depth at the edge. Then we will see where that goes during the draft. Those aren’t fun when you re-sign your own players, and I understand… But when we look at the puzzle, you have to take the red magnets that are [unrestricted free agents] and put them off the depth chart, then begin to address the ‘musts’, ‘needs’ and ‘wants’.”
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