San Francisco will have a series of franchise-altering decisions to make when the 2025 offseason arrives.
Among those are what to do with pending defensive free agents in linebacker Dre Greenlaw and safety Talanoa Hufanga.
Greenlaw has been a staple of San Francisco’s defense during his six seasons with the franchise. Alongside Fred Warner, Greenlaw has helped form one of the NFL’s best linebacking duos.
Even before his Achilles injury in Super Bowl LVIII that sidelined him until last Thursday’s game against the Los Angeles Rams, Greenlaw’s career has been hampered by nagging quad, groin, calf and hamstring injuries. Since being selected in the 2019 NFL draft, Greenlaw has missed 34 games.
The results speak for themselves, though. As ESPN’s Nick Wagoner shared, San Francisco’s defense limits opponents to 19.7 points per game and boasts a 44-19 record in its 63 regular season games with Greenlaw.
In the 34 games without Greenlaw, San Francisco is just 16-18 and allows 21.1 points per game.
Selected in the fifth round of the 2021 draft, Hufanga was a first-team All-Pro in the 2022 season. Hufanga has played in just four games this season and entered the year working his way back from a torn ACL in his right knee that ended his 2023 season in November of last year.
After returning from his ACL injury to begin the 2024 campaign, subsequent ankle and wrist injuries shelved him for most of this season.
On Wednesday, San Francisco 49ers head coach Kyle Shanahan was asked how the team will weigh the duo’s respective star power against their availability when the offseason and their pending free agencies arrive.
“That goes into factoring everything. That’s what’s unfortunate. Nothing those two guys can do differently about it. But those are two of the better players I’ve been around and two of the better players on our team and two of the main reasons we’ve had the success here we’ve had. So, hopefully we can do everything we can to work out keeping them here because they’re as much of examples of 49ers as anyone I can think of,” Shanahan said.
It’s clear that Shanahan has an affinity for the duo and would like to keep both Greenlaw and Hufanga around.
Shanahan wasn’t surprised that both stepped right in and played well in their respective returns either.
“That’s what they’ve done the other times. One of the best games I’ve seen a linebacker play is, I think ’21, when Dre played in Week One versus Detroit and didn’t come back until Week 17 versus the Rams. We needed that game to go to the playoffs and that was the first time I’ve seen someone miss 16 games and come back and play at that level. So it doesn’t surprise me at all,” Shanahan said of Greenlaw.
“Huf’s, he came back earlier in this year and with having a wrist injury and stuff, he’s been able to get ready for this opportunity a little bit more than coming off his ACL that he had before that. So Huf’s been chomping at the
bit to get back and he was more ready for that moment.”
In his season debut, Greenlaw played just 30 defensive snaps before exiting with knee and Achilles soreness, but he racked up a quick eight tackles and the 49ers limited the Rams to just 12 points.
Hufanga tallied five tackles in a 38-13 blowout win over the Chicago Bears in Week 14. San Francisco held Chicago to just four yards of first-half offense in that victory over the Bears, which was the lowest mark of any NFL offense in a first half this season.
Then, against the Rams last week, Hufanga totaled eight tackles and 1.5 stuffs.
Even with possible free agency looming, Shanahan said that pair can help provide an energy to the 49ers’ locker room during these final three games of the season.
“A ton. I think you guys can see how, I think Huf going out there the Sunday before, and I think our safeties have played pretty good this year too, but just Huf the person and his communication and just having him out there I think was very inspiring.
“And then adding Dre the next week, or four days later, one, how good of a player he is and how big of a difference he makes just from that, but the style of how he plays really adds to our defense and makes everyone else better around him, not just adding a good player,” Shanahan said.
San Francisco (6-8) hopes that the spark from that duo can roll on into this week when the 49ers travel to Miami (6-8) to battle the Dolphins from Hard Rock Stadium. Kickoff on Sunday is set for 1:25 p.m. PT.