49ers' 'heartbeat' named X-factor for 2026 season
· Yahoo Sports
The San Francisco 49ers spent this offseason assembling a roster full of wily veterans built for a championship run. It's the natural response to a 2025 season that ended a game short of an NFC West title and one win shy of the conference title game after a divisional-round playoff exit.
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Mike Evans, Osa Odighizuwa and now Dre Greenlaw headline a group of proven players brought in to push San Francisco over the hump, and FOX Sports' Ben Arthur named Greenlaw as the X-factor who could swing the 49ers' fortunes in 2026.
Greenlaw was the heartbeat of the Niners in his first stint with the team from 2019-24. After a year in Denver, he returns to San Francisco as the expected starter at weakside linebacker. In Greenlaw's first six seasons with San Francisco, the defense played significantly better with him on the field. Overall, including the playoffs, the 49ers went 52-24 when Greenlaw played.
Greenlaw spent his first six NFL seasons in San Francisco after the 49ers drafted him in the fifth round in 2019, developing into one of the league's most disruptive linebackers alongside Fred Warner.
He tore his Achilles tendon during pregame warmups before Super Bowl LVIII, an injury that limited him to just two games in 2024. He signed a three-year deal with the Denver Broncos in free agency last offseason, but the partnership was short-lived. Greenlaw appeared in only eight games for Denver in 2025 due to quad and hamstring injuries and a one-game suspension, recording 1.0 sacks, 43 tackles, two passes defensed, a forced fumble and an interception before the Broncos released him this offseason.
San Francisco moved quickly to bring him back, agreeing to a one-year, $7.5 million deal in March that's fully guaranteed. The contract includes a $2.5 million base salary, $850,000 in per-game roster bonuses and a $50,000 workout bonus, carrying a $3.55 million cap hit in 2026.
Through his first stint with the 49ers, Greenlaw totaled 455 tackles, 3.5 sacks and two interceptions across six regular seasons, plus 18 tackles, a forced fumble and a fumble recovery in six career postseason starts.
Now he slots back in next to Warner as the 49ers look to round out a defense under new coordinator Raheem Morris, with the hope that a healthier Greenlaw can recapture the form that made him a fixture of San Francisco's playoff runs.
This article originally appeared on Niners Wire: Dre Greenlaw named 49ers' top X-factor for 2026 season