After terrorizing old team, 49ers' Dre Greenlaw said he was fueled by Sean Payton's ‘disrespect'
On Sunday, moments after the final seconds expired, Dre Greenlaw, the San Francisco 49ers‘ passionate, combustible linebacker, walked directly toward Broncos head coach Sean Payton, screaming, before they crossed paths near midfield.
Greenlaw had just played a starring role in the 49ers’ 24-14 win over Denver, his employer in 2025. That had been a disastrous, injury ravaged season for Greenlaw – a year so awful he sunk into a depression and considered leaving the NFL – but he had no ill will for his ex-teammates Sunday.
But Payton? That was a different story. In a postgame conversation with the Chronicle, Greenlaw explained that his on-field message was payback: Disrespect for the disrespectful way he thought Payton treated him. Linebacker Fred Warner pulled Greenlaw away from Payton as Payton walked past, his right hand brushing Greenlaw’s side.
“I told him to get the f— off the field,” Greenlaw said. “That’s it: ‘Get the f— off the field.'”
Greenlaw’s animus towards Payton helps explain why he was all over the field he wanted Payton to exit. In a game in which Denver didn’t score a touchdown in the first 55 minutes, Greenlaw had a team-high 12 tackles, his most since Dec. 25, 2023. He also forced a fumble and had more than one high-decibel, presumably R-rated message for Payton.
After Greenlaw’s first tackle, a takedown of running back RJ Harvey after a 6-yard reception along the Broncos sideline in the first quarter, the linebacker pointed at Payton, standing a few yards away, and yelled.
“I don’t even remember what I said,” Greenlaw said. “I blacked out a little.”
Greenlaw was blacking out and seeing red Sunday because Payton, he said, ignored him last year, starting around late November. After he signed a three-year, $31.5 million contract in March 2025, Greenlaw missed Denver’s first six games with a torn quadriceps. He missed the final two games with a hamstring strain. The Broncos released him in March after Greenlaw had made 43 tackles in eight games.
Greenlaw said Payton began ignoring him – he said he hadn’t spoken to him since Week 12 — because he was frustrated by the return the Broncos were receiving on their investment.
“He definitely was, for sure,” Greenlaw said. “He would walk by – I would walk by – and he wouldn’t even look at me because of my injury. So I just knew what it was (with him) there.”
Greenlaw, a longtime enforcer and energizer who spent his first six seasons with the 49ers before his lone season in Denver, said his relationship with Payton is why he was “1,000 percent” more amped than usual for Sunday’s game.
Greenlaw said his agent was the one who informed him the Broncos were parting ways with him.
“The disrespect,” Greenlaw said of Sunday’s motivation. “He couldn’t be man to man and call my phone and say, ‘We’re going to cut you.'”
Asked if he had an issue with Greenlaw, Payton said he spoke with 49ers head coach Kyle Shanahan about Greenlaw during their postgame greeting. It was seconds after Greenlaw yelled at Payton.
“I said this to Kyle afterwards: I think the world of him,” Payton said. “I really love everything about him. He plays with that emotion. So it’s all good.”
After Greenlaw’s lost season in Denver, things are looking far better for him now. He has 34 tackles this season for a 4-0 team that’s allowing just 16 points a game. On Sunday, he said he considered retiring during the darkest days last year, which had been preceded by his already difficult 2024 season with the 49ers: Greenlaw played in just two games and was unable to finish either contest, due to time lost to the torn Achilles he suffered in the Super Bowl in February 2024.
After missing the first six games last year with the Broncos, Greenlaw had played in just two games in 614 days. He said his conversations with two of his closest friends, Warner and Texans linebacker Azeez Al-Shaair, his former teammate with the 49ers, changed his outlook on his football future. Greenlaw signed a one-year, $6 million contract with the 49ers in March.
“I don’t know if Dre was ever really truly going to be done with it,” Warner said to the Chronicle. “I think sometimes in the hardest moments, you think of things that you may not have ever thought of. But I’m happy that he’s all good now.”
Greenlaw said he had to work to rein in his emotions Sunday so he’d have some energy left for the fourth quarter. Left tackle Trent Williams indicated he was concerned Greenlaw might run too hot. Greenlaw has seven career unnecessary roughness penalties, was ejected for a sideline altercation with an Eagles staffer in 2023 and served a one-game NFL suspension last year for chasing and verbally threatening a referee after a loss to the Giants.
“I told him after the game, ‘I could tell you were about 98% blacked out,'” Williams said. “But he kept his cool with that other 2%.”
Defensive end Romello Height added, “Every time he came to the sideline, he was tweaking out. It was good to see that, and it was good to see him kind of get revenge on an old team.”
Greenlaw was so thrilled about getting revenge that tight end George Kittle got a surprise greeting. After Kittle’s game-sealing 56-yard touchdown catch with just over two minutes left, he expected to be embraced in the end zone by offensive teammates. Instead, it was Greenlaw, who began sprinting down the sideline when Kittle was in the middle of his scoring gallop.
“Where did he come from?” Kittle said. “That’s awesome.”
After Kittle’s touchdown, Greenlaw returned to the 49ers sideline, staring across the field toward his former coach with his right index finger raised. Minutes later, he would, in effect, give Payton the verbal equivalent of a different one-finger salute.
In Greenlaw’s mind, it was payback: disrespect for disrespect.
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This article originally published at After terrorizing old team, 49ers’ Dre Greenlaw said he was fueled by Sean Payton’s ‘disrespect’.
