The Broncos landed LB Dre Greenlaw in free agency with a three-year, $31.5 million deal. That positions him as Denver's highest-paid LB and marked a noteworthy investment into a 28-year-old (on May 25) who missed nearly all of last season coming off his Achilles' tear in the Super Bowl. The 49ers reportedly made a late push to retain Greenlaw. Instead, his move shakes up two LB groups.
ESPN's Adam Schefter: "The 49ers were trying to get back Dre Greenlaw, even after Denver had an agreement done with him. And I think they were pretty persuasive, but not persuasive enough."
49ers GM John Lynch on LB Dee Winters, a potential replacement: "He'll have an opportunity. There's still a lot of time between now and when we play, but he's a guy we like. And he's still growing as a player. [DC Robert] Saleh's here. And it's been fun to have a new lens on things. He's very excited with Dee and a lot of players."
Greenlaw's annual average on his new Broncos contract easily tops the $6 million annual average on incumbent LB Alex Singleton's deal. Combine that with Singleton coming off an ACL tear, and Greenlaw looks pretty clearly like Denver's new lead LB.
That's likely to knock even a healthy Singleton down from the 100% snap shares he played for most of his games over the past two years. But it should leave room for him to settle somewhere in the 65-85% range. That's where Singleton hovered back in 2022, the last time he ran as Denver's No. 2 LB.
Singleton has been a hyper-efficient tackle collector. So even that level of playing time would likely support some IDP worth.
Greenlaw will certainly be the higher-ceiling fantasy play, though. And we should assume by the contract that Denver expects him to be full strength for 2025. I'll keep an eye on offseason and camp reports.
Dee Winters looks like the top in-house candidate to replace Greenlaw in the lineup. But the reported late push to keep Greenlaw suggests the 49ers probably at least got close to the same money Denver gave him. And that would seem to indicate they're not overly excited about any existing heir.
San Francisco, of course, could look to the draft for Greenlaw's replacement. The team has reportedly shown lots of interest in Oregon's Jeffrey Bassa to date.
We'll see how this plays out.
Winters is stashable in deep IDP leagues, but don't get too excited. Even after LB De'Vondre Campbell quit on the team late last season, Winters cracked 90% playing time in just one of the final three games. He also exceeded 3 solo tackles only once for the year.
Singleton is also stashable in case he got dumped anywhere either after last season's injury or following the Greenlaw signing.
Like I said, there's room for him in the lineup with Greenlaw. And Denver wouldn't appear to get meaningful cap help by dumping Singleton ahead of this season.
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