Dre Greenlaw explains why he ‘wasn’t happy’ with Broncos
As Dre Greenlaw gave a slight shake of his head, a San Francisco logo hung on the wall behind him, directly over the ex-Bronco’s left shoulder. Symbolic of a fresh beginning, in an old home. Symbolic, too, of an injury-riddled season that Greenlaw appreciated but wants to leave on the cutting-room floor.
“I feel like if y’all would have gotten a chance to know each other better, like, Sean Payton and how he operates,” former Saints left tackle Terron Armstead said to Greenlaw on his podcast, “if y’all knew each other, like, ‘Dre don’t need to be out here (practicing) Wednesday.’”
“Man,” Greenlaw said, with a wistful smile.
That single word said enough, on its own, about Greenlaw’s time in Denver. But the linebacker had plenty more to reveal on an hour-plus-long episode of Armstead’s “The Set” podcast this week — and implied that his adjustment to Payton and the Broncos’ intensive offseason schedule triggered the quad injury that dashed much of his 2025 season.
Two days after the Broncos’ season-ending AFC Championship loss in late January, Greenlaw told reporters that Payton was “old-school” in his methods and the “complete opposite” of 49ers head coach Kyle Shanahan, who Greenlaw played for for six seasons in San Francisco before joining Denver last offseason. Payton, Greenlaw explained, has his players practice six days a week. Shanahan, Greenlaw added, tries to keep players “fresh.” Different methods.
“It’s for good reasons, too,” Greenlaw said.
A tough start to a tough season
A few weeks after the Broncos cut ties with Greenlaw and he signed back with San Francisco, though, the linebacker went further in-depth on what went wrong in Denver. In March 2025, Greenlaw signed with the Broncos for three years and $35 million, coming off a 2024 season where an Achilles injury wiped him out for all but two games. And Greenlaw told Armstead that his trainer, then, told him he needed to ramp up his offseason training, because “the Broncos practice different than the 49ers.”
“Like, ‘you’re not going to be able to come in there, and just like — how you were with the 49ers, and they take care of your body, and this and that,’” Greenlaw told Armstead, recalling his conversation with the trainer. “‘The Broncos, they’re going to want you to go every day. They’re six days on. Their rehab is tough. All of this, and this.
“So I’m just like, OK, let’s get it going. So we started picking it up, started picking it up.”
Then — exactly two days after he got to Denver, Greenlaw revealed — he strained his quad.
“Should’ve been just smarter about where I was going in, and training with them at,” Greenlaw reflected. “You go into a new spot, you want to get going, this and that and that. And basically just had some hiccups that I really felt like I had no control over.”
Greenlaw himself called Denver’s training staff “second-to-none” on Armstead’s podcast, despite the injury-riddled season. The Broncos told The Post that the organization — according to anonymized team data collected by the NFL and disseminated to all 32 franchises — ranked first in the NFL in fewest injuries (37) suffered and had the third-fewest regular-season games missed (23) due to injury among players on the 53-man roster.
The Broncos’ brass has repeatedly expressed confidence in vice president of player health and performance Beau Lowery, including an end-of-season presser by general manager George Paton.
“With Beau Lowery and our medical department, we feel really strong about their opinion,” Paton said. “And if someone’s been hurt somewhere else, maybe we feel like we can get them going. We’ll have a plan – not that other teams don’t – but we just feel really strong about our medical team, our sports performance team, where we can bring someone into our environment, and they can thrive.”
Greenlaw’s quad injury kick-started an extended rehab that featured multiple setbacks and flare-ups through training camp, as Greenlaw never saw the field in Denver until Week 7’s matchup with the New York Giants. He played much of the season on a snap count, missed two games late in the year with a separate hamstring injury, and returned for the playoffs in a time-share with inside linebacker Justin Strnad.
The 28-year-old linebacker wound up playing just 44% of the Broncos’ defensive snaps in the postseason and finished his cumulative 2025 season with 53 tackles in 10 games.
“It makes it tough when you pay a guy $11 million,” Greenlaw said on the podcast, “and he’s only on the field 50% of the time. So it made it tough for me, bro. And it made it to the point where — it kinda makes you not happy, you know what I’m saying?”
The frustration from that extended ramp-up process, Greenlaw said, even bled into a midseason suspension when the NFL ruled he’d “verbally threatened” referee Brad Allen after the conclusion of Week 7’s comeback win over the Giants. Greenlaw told Armstead he didn’t threaten Allen, but was trying to argue a pass-interference call on cornerback Riley Moss from the sidelines in the fourth quarter. Allen “gave me the side-eye,” Greenlaw recounted. And frustration boiled over, Greenlaw explained, because the Broncos were “already taking me in and out.”
So Greenlaw, indeed, chased after Allen and roared at him immediately after a game-winning field goal.
“I said, ‘Man, that was bull(expletive),” Greenlaw said on Armstead’s podcast. “‘You a (expletive) for calling that.’ And that’s what I said to him, no cap.”
Moving on
Despite Greenlaw admitting he simply “wasn’t happy” in Denver, the linebacker said he didn’t regret signing with the Broncos. Payton, meanwhile, told reporters at league meetings in Arizona on Tuesday that it was a tough decision to cut Greenlaw.
“I would say, in my career as a coach, I’ve been lucky enough to coach a lot of passionate players that love the game,” Payton said. “And I’m always disappointed that didn’t work out. Because, I love that player. I love how he competes. And I love all the things he brings. And you feel somewhat responsible when it doesn’t work out.”
Payton defended the Broncos’ practice habits at his end-of-season presser in January, citing an injury-riddled 2022 season before he arrived as head coach, during which he said “there weren’t ever pads on” in training camp. Notably, though, the head coach implemented extended rehabilitation periods on Fridays for offensive and defensive linemen in 2025, and promised to further tweak his approach in 2026.
“Dre, Courtland (Sutton), Wednesday might just be a rest day,” Payton said in January, describing the mid-week practice approach for veterans. “I think I can be better in that area.”
The Broncos are taking an extended rest period this offseason after a deep postseason run in 2025, too. Payton said in Arizona that players won’t be back in the building at all until May, and won’t take the field for OTAs and minicamp until June.
All in all, Greenlaw made clear to Armstead there were no hard feelings. But he appeared, clearly, to be elated to be back in the Bay Area.
“I’m thankful for all of it — for Sean, and the Penners, everybody that accepted me into that organization,” Greenlaw said. “Teammates, and all.
“But, yeah, I’m excited to be a 49er.”
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