Niners LB Dre Greenlaw appears likely to miss the final two games of the season with soreness in his calf. That's, of course, a more significant issue for Greenlaw than it might be for others because he's coming off an Achilles' tear from last year's Super Bowl. Greenlaw returned to play 30 snaps in Week 15, his first action since the injury. But he made it through just 4 snaps in Sunday's loss to the Dolphins.
HC Kyle Shanahan on Monday: "My gut is most likely that he'll end up being shut down. 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.
Besides the natural competitiveness of a pro athlete, Greenlaw could have a practical reason to fight against being shut down. He's set to hit unrestricted free agency in March.
That said, even if he doesn't sit out the final two games completely, it's clear that we can't trust Greenlaw for starter-level playing time or fantasy production. So he's out of our LB rankings for weeks 17 and 18.
Dee Winters played a season-high 76% snap share as the No. 2 LB for Week 16. He tallied 8 tackles (6 solo) in that one and defensed his fourth pass of the year.
But that marked the first time this year he has topped 4 total tackles or 3 solos. It'll take a pretty deep IDP league to make Winters a worthwhile Week 17 target.
It's also worth noting that Winters is dealing with a chest injury this week.
We'll see on both the reported physical outlook for Greenlaw this offseason and how much interest he generates on the open market.
He'll turn 28 in May, so there's time for a couple more years of IDP relevance if he can get back to full strength.
But there's also a chance that he never gets back to the level of his past couple of seasons.
Greenlaw's OK to hold in dynasty leagues with deep enough rosters. But he's not a "must" hold if you have to make decisions.
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