7 players who could be playing their final season with 49ers
By Peter Panacy
LB Dre Greenlaw
There's no questioning just how important linebacker Dre Greenlaw is to the Niners defense, and fans witnessed this because of his torn Achilles suffered in the Super Bowl last February. When that happened, San Francisco's defense began to fall apart.
A free agent in 2025, Greenlaw first has to recover and prove he can be 100 percent this season. That's vital. And he might not even be ready by the start of the regular season.
But a strong bounce-back campaign could ultimately price him out of the 49ers' comfort range, meaning they'll either have to turn to younger options, such as Dee Winters or Tatum Bethune, or find a cheaper alternative on the free-agent market.
S Talanoa Hufanga
All-Pro safety Talanoa Hufanga is a bit further along than Greenlaw when it comes to injury recovery, having suffered a torn ACL halfway through the regular season.
That said, the Niners may already be planning for Hufanga's departure after already drafting one safety in 2023, Ji'Ayir Brown, then doubling down last April by grabbing Malik Mustapha in Round 4 in this year's draft.
Ideally, those latter two combine to make San Francisco's starting tandem for the foreseeable future, relegating Hufanga into a category of being dispensable.