Report: Broncos ILB Dre Greenlaw Not Participating in OTAs

A longtime standout with the San Francisco 49ers, Greenlaw was lured to the Mile High City in free agency via a three-year, $31.5 million contract, of which nearly half was guaranteed. Shortly after putting pen to paper, he sustained a quad injury during a workout that initially was reported to be season-threatening.

In reality, the issue was not severe, and he avoided surgery. The Broncos consciously bypassed the ILB position in the 2025 NFL Draft, with head coach Sean Payton declaring Greenlaw will be ready for training camp in late July.

“He’s on schedule. I saw the early reports, and you don’t know how tempted I get sometimes… But I showed great restraint. (Laughs) He’s doing well and will be a full participant in training camp. All of that’s doing great, but I refrained," Payton told the media amid rookie minicamp on May 10.

Once fully healthy, Greenlaw will man the middle of and further strengthen Denver's league-leading defense aside incumbent starting ILB Alex Singleton, who's coming back from a torn ACL. The former was made a free-agent priority despite a checkered injury history that includes a ruptured Achilles tendon in 2023.

“It’s huge [with] everything he provides. He’s a tone setter. He’s a tone setter of the defense," general manager George Paton said of Greenlaw in March. "You watch him on tape—now, [San Francisco] had a good defense [and] had a really good program, but you watch him on tape, he sticks out. It’s very contagious when you watch him play the game.”

The Broncos are scheduled to hold OTA practices on Wednesday and Thursday, and again from June 3-5, before a mandatory minicamp from June 10-12.

Backup ILBs Justin Strnad and Drew Sanders will stand in for Greenlaw and Singleton while they ramp up their football activity, purposely mothballed until later in the summer.