It’s no secret that the San Francisco 49ers will look a lot different this season after letting a lot of players walk out the door and into free agency.
It wasn’t a surprise, as the franchise had plenty of inflated contracts on the books last year, spending $334.5 million in cash on players, the highest figure in the league, and needed to reset a little bit.
Two of the more notable names on the Niners’ list of departures were safety Talanoa Hufanga and linebacker Dre Greenlaw, both of whom signed lucrative three-year contracts with the Denver Broncos despite playing just nine combined games for the 49ers in 2024.
Nevertheless, both are getting a lot of love as they prepare to kick off their first camp in Colorado, which features some light acclimation sessions on Wednesday and Thursday before the first official day of practice on Friday.
On Tuesday, superstar cornerback and reigning NFL Defensive Player of the Year Patrick Surtain II met with reporters and spoke on the high expectations for the Broncos, who made the playoffs last season for the first time in nine years.
The three-time Pro Bowler also seemed extremely excited about his new teammates, saying, “There are a lot of new additions [and] a lot of new pieces that fit in our system, so it should be great.”
Surtain was one of two players made available to the media, with the second being someone much more familiar with Hufanga and Greenlaw, that being former 49ers right tackle Mike McGlinchey, whom San Francisco selected with the ninth overall pick in the first round of the 2018 draft.
As McGlinchey remained with the Niners through the 2022 campaign, after which he signed a five-year, $87.5 million deal with Denver, he knows what Hufanga and Greenlaw bring to the table when healthy. And he’s excited for this reunion.
“I mean, obviously their play speaks for themselves,” McGlinchey said. “I think ‘Huf’ and Dre are two of the best at their positions across the league, and they’re monstrous additions for us defensively. The two of them bring such an energy, especially [because] the defensive side of the football is a very emotional, energetic kind of style of play.
“You can feel Dre Greenlaw when he steps onto the field. You can feel ‘Huf’ when he makes plays in the box or takes a chance on a great interception. Those two are going to help us tremendously this year, and I’m happy to be back on the same side as them.”
McGlinchey’s last season in San Francisco was the year Hufanga earned a Pro Bowl selection and first-team All-Pro honors after recording 97 total tackles, five tackles for loss, a pair of sacks, nine passes defended, and four interceptions.
Unfortunately for the Niners, he appeared in just 17 combined games over the 2023 and 2024 seasons, as he dealt with a torn ACL and then a wrist injury.
That same season, Greenlaw set a career high with 127 total tackles and followed up with another 120 in 2023. Sadly, he suffered a torn Achilles in the Niners’ Super Bowl 58 loss to the Kansas City Chiefs and appeared in just two games in 2024.
It’ll certainly be interesting to see how these two perform with their new team, but the Broncos sure seem excited about having them around.
