Niners Nation
When Dre Greenlaw returned in Week 12, Shanahan asked his veterans how they could get that energy and motivation for 17 weeks. Rather than one game over halfway through the season.
The 49ers didn’t have many highs in 2024, but Week 12 vs. the Rams—when Dre Greenlaw came back—was one of them. The defense looked alive again.
And Kyle Shanahan noticed.
Kyle Shanahan sat down with The San Francisco Standard’s Tim Kawakami and laid it all out—Purdy’s contract, how the roster had to shift as early as 2023, and why Week 12 bugged him. That was the game where Dre Greenlaw came back, and the energy was different because of it. Shanahan noticed, and he wasn’t thrilled it took that long:
I had a meeting at my house where I had all the vets over at OTAs. That (the Rams game) was one of the games that bothered me. Everyone knows how much I love Dre Greenlaw on our team. I think the media does, fans, but the team definitely knows. I love Dre. I think he’s one of the best linebackers I’ve ever seen.
And I asked all our guys, what our best game is, and all of them say the Rams.
[telling this to ] My daughter and my wife, “wow that looks like it from the stands.”
Dre Greenlaw played a quarter and a half that game. Why did everyone else play so much better? Because Dre is that good. I know everyone knows that, but one guy can’t make everyone that much better. But the other 10 of you played that much better.
And I said to Bosa, I said to these guys, I said, “In my opinion, it’s because—and I feel the same way—we were all motivated more because Dre is out there. How the hell, how can we be motivated more? Aren’t we always motivated as much as we can be? That’s the M.O. of who we are. We’re always this same. We always go hard. We don’t just go hard—oh Dre’s out there? We have a chance this week—that’s not who we are. And even though I loved how he looked that game, that was a sign to me, to the veterans, to myself, to everyone that, that’s not right. I want that young youth that we don’t give a damn about anything. We feel that way no matter what. And we can turn it up now that Greenlaw’s out there? It’s always turned up. And if we can’t find that back guys, if you you guys can’t find that back as veterans me as a coach, you’re all out, me included. And that’s to me the reality of that.
Without Dre Greenlaw to start the 2024 season, you knew the 49ers wouldn’t have their full potential on defense. If you watched the 49ers past Week 2, it was apparent something was very wrong, and it wasn’t just Greenlaw’s absence. Sure, Week 1 against...
