Linebacker Dre Greenlaw’s move to Denver last year did not work out as planned.
Greenlaw signed a three-year deal with the Broncos, but missed the first six games of the season with a quad injury and then was suspended for the eighth because of an altercation with referee Brad Allen. Greenlaw dealt with a hamstring injury near the end of the year and was released in March after playing 10 total games with the AFC West club.
During an appearance on The Set podcast with former NFL player Terron Armstead, Greenlaw shared why he believes things didn’t work out with the Broncos.
“Going from a 4-3 to a 3-4 was a huge difference, especially not being able to practice in the defense,” Greenlaw said. “It’s just kinda like, for me, 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. It makes it tough when you pay a guy $11 mil 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 — the linebackers were playing really, really good at the time, so now I’ve gotta come in I’m 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 for one and, for two, yeah, I just wasn’t happy. That’s really what it boiled down to at the end of the day.”
Greenlaw said he was thankful for the opportunity to play for Sean Payton in Denver and for the way he was accepted by the organization, but added that “everything works out for a reason” and that he’s excited to be back with the 49ers after signing a one-year deal with his first team in the wake of his release.
There’s one way to keep 49ers fans from taking over SoFi Stadium during a “road” game against the Rams.
Move it to Melbourne.
In a joint interview with Packers coach Matt LaFleur, 49ers coach Kyle Shanahan said he knows “for a fact” that the Rams pushed to have their home game against the 49ers be the game that was sent from La La Land to the Land Down Under.
“I’m pretty sure the Rams lobbied for that game,” LaFleur said when the subject of the Australia game came up.
“I know for a fact they did,” Shanahan said. “That’s what’s so bothersome.”
Shanahan joked (we think) that he wants the 49ers’ “home” game in Mexico to have the Rams as the visiting team.
Still, Shanahan understands why the Rams would want to avoid seeing a home game against the 49ers become a home game for the 49ers. (The Chargers were surely thinking about that last year, when a potential Chiefs takeover of SoFi Stadium was moved to Brazil.)
“That would suck to have to do silent cadence and to have our home game at their stadium,” Shanahan said. “So I get their ambitions, but they were rewarded that. So I’m just hoping we can get our request, too. I’d love them to come to Mexico.”
Having both ends of a home-and-home series played on foreign soil would be unprecedented, to say the least. And it would be an interesting tweak, if it ever happens.
For now, we’ll all settle for the interesting reality that the Rams found a way to tweak the 49ers by successfully persuading the NFL to export what would have been another 49ers home game.
Broncos coach Sean Payton recently coached one of the teams of current and former NFL players (with a stray YouTuber or two) against the U.S. men’s national flag football team.
It didn’t go well for the non-flag players.
“Well, that was humbling,” Payton said Tuesday of the experience during the AFC coaches’ breakfast. “You remember the Home Alone series, and Macaulay Culkin was inside [the house]. Macaulay Culkin was the international team, and I felt like [Kyle Shanahan and I] were the two guys outside getting hit in the head with the iron and tripping over the garden hose. It’s an entirely different game.”
Payton was likely Harry, which would mean Shanahan was Marv.
“Listen, it was kind of cool to be around those guys,” Payton said. “That was a big deal. I think when this first was announced, there was this feeling there would be 10 NFL players on [the 2028 U.S. men’s Olympic] roster, and I’ll be surprised if there’s one. I just think we have plenty of players that can acclimate, but it’s going to take a month or two. Then if you’re one of those players, do you have that month or two? If you’re training for that, you’re not training for. . . .”
In the transcript supplied by the Broncos, Payton didn’t finish the thought. But it’s obvious — if you’re training for flag football, you’re not training for tackle football.
That’s the ultimate question. Will tackle football players make the commitment necessary to train for flag football, at the risk of undermining their preparation for the version of the game that pays the bills?
Jaguars head coach Liam Coen had a beef with Robert Saleh when Jacksonville faced the 49ers last season, but things appear to have calmed down ahead of Saleh’s first season as the Titans’ head coach.
Saleh said that Coen and the Jaguars had “a really advanced signal stealing-type system” that they deployed to their advantage ahead of a September game and Coen made it clear on the field that he didn’t appreciate Saleh’s comments after the 26-21 Jaguars win. Saleh never accused the Jaguars of doing anything illegal, but said after the game that his choice of words could have been better because he meant it as a compliment to Jacksonville’s preparation.
At the league meetings in Arizona on Tuesday, Saleh said that the two men have moved past the issue.
“We’re good,” Saleh said, via Michael DiRocco of ESPN.com. “I know the NFL probably wants more of a story, but there’s no story. I have an appreciation for Liam. Like I said, I used the wrong word when I was trying to give him a compliment, but all that’s under the bridge. We’ve talked and put it behind us.”
Coen said that the incident has been fodder for teasing from other coaches around the league and the two men will get a pair of chances to renew their acquaintance during the 2026 season.
Consider 49ers head coach Kyle Shanahan unenthused about starting the 2026 season in Australia.
Speaking to reporters at the annual league meeting on Monday morning, Shanahan delivered a response characterized as sarcastic when asked about the team’s international schedule for 2026, which will see the club begin the year in Melbourne as an away team while also going to Mexico City later in the year as a home team.
“I was so fired up. That was our goal, to go 19 hours away to play a game,” Shanahan said, via David Bonilla of 49erswebzone.com. “I think we’re going back in time or into the future. I think we gain a day or lose a day — I’m not sure which one yet.
“But it is what it is. We’ll deal with it. I think there’s eight international games. We got two of them, so I’m fired up about that.”
Shanahan added he doesn’t see any positives to playing the first regular-season NFL game in Australia.
“No, not at all,” Shanahan said. “I don’t see any pro. I mean, it’s cool for the league to play globally. I think it’s awesome, but as far as the team doing it, there’s not much benefit to it.
“Sometimes it’s nice to get a bye week after, but it doesn’t happen for Week 1.
Shanahan noted teams don’t get much of a say in the international slate.
“No, they tell you, you deal with it,” he said.
The 49ers’ matchup in Mexico City is expected to land much later in the season, potentially in December.
