Dre Greenlaw's unfortunate ending to his 2023 season sent him down a long road of recovery and rehabilitation.
That road meets turf on Thursday. San Francisco (6-7) plans to activate the linebacker ahead of tonight's meeting with the Los Angeles Rams (7-6), NFL Network Insider Ian Rapoport reported, per sources. The team officially removed Greenlaw from the PUP list later Thursday.
Greenlaw is returning from an Achilles injury suffered in a most unfortunate fashion when he tore the tendon while planting to run onto the field early in the second quarter of Super Bowl LVIII. He crumpled to the ground as his teammates jogged out and it was quickly evident Greenlaw wouldn't be suiting up again for quite some time.
San Francisco has weathered plenty of injuries since then, battling through a season in which it's never quite been at full strength. While elite linebacker Fred Warner has played all 13 of the 49ers' games without Greenlaw alongside him, Christian McCaffrey's season ended after just four games following calf, Achilles and knee injuries. The injury list goes on, but it should be nice for 49ers fans to hear about a player returning instead of heading for injured reserve.
Greenlaw shouldn't be expected to handle a full workload. He'll ease his way back into the action Thursday night, per Rapoport, as is relatively standard practice for players returning from an Achilles injury.
In five NFL seasons all spent with San Francisco, Greenlaw has proven to be a thumping linebacker capable of playing on all three downs, amassing 446 tackles (18 for loss), 3.5 sacks, 14 passes defensed, three interceptions and two forced fumbles in 62 career games played. He's started in each of his last 30 games over the previous two seasons.
He'll notch his first appearance in 2024 Thursday night in a game that will be pivotal in sorting out the crowded NFC West.
