Home is where the heart is. For linebacker Dre Greenlaw, that certainly was not with the Denver Broncos.

Greenlaw spent last season with the Broncos after signing a three-year, $31.5 million contract, but was cut almost a year later. Greenlaw then returned to the San Francisco 49ers, where he spent the first six years of his career, on a one-year deal. While it wasn’t the main reason Greenlaw left Denver, he certainly won’t miss the altitude of the Mile High City.

“F—ing altitude,” Greenlaw told The Athletic. “My mouth’s dry, my nose is dry, I can’t sleep. … I’m fighting demons left and right.”

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“I tell you, it’s different being here in California,” Greenlaw said. “This fresh air, bro, it makes a difference. You feel like you can run all day out here.”

Greenlaw’s Broncos tenure got off to an inauspicious start, as he suffered a severe quadriceps strain on the second day of OTAs, and it held him out until Week 7. Greenlaw said he felt head coach Sean Payton’s ire because he wasn’t able to be on the field.

“We were good, especially when I first came in,” Greenlaw said. “And then you pop your quad, people start looking at you. Then, when we played the Jaguars (on Dec. 21), I had a little bit of a hamstring (injury). After that, you kind of feel when the coach is, like, not really messing with you. I felt alone.”

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Green Bay Packers running back Josh Jacobs catches a touchdown pass under pressure from Denver Broncos linebacker Dre Greenlaw during the second quarter at Empower Field at Mile High in Denver, Colo., on Dec. 14, 2025. (IMAGN IMAGES via Reuters Connect)

The linebacker said he knew the trainers better than his teammates because he wasn’t on the field. Last season, he appeared in eight games (seven starts), recorded 43 tackles, with two tackles for loss, one sack and one interception.

The Broncos ran a different scheme than the one Greenlaw used with the 49ers, and he said he never mastered it. He took accountability for his shortcomings in Denver.

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“I don’t blame anything on the Broncos,” he said. “Coming off the Achilles and the calf (injuries), I just wasn’t in the shape that I needed to be to go out there with them and give it all I got. I should have taken it slow. (But) naturally, they’d just paid me, so that’s all I wanted to do — go show them what I could do. And it bit me in the ass, the second day I got there.”

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Washington Commanders quarterback Marcus Mariota scrambles with the ball under pressure from Denver Broncos linebacker Dre Greenlaw in the fourth quarter at Northwest Stadium in Landover, Md., on Nov. 30, 2025. (IMAGN IMAGES via Reuters Connect)

“I know what I could have done better, as far as being in that film,” he said. “That’s where I feel like I let myself and everybody down.”

After being cut by the Broncos, Greenlaw signed a one-year, $7.5 million deal to return to the 49ers. The familiarity of Southern California is one he enjoys.

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“It just feels like home,” Greenlaw said. “I get to still play football and prove people wrong. And that’s what I’ve been doing my whole life.”

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