It took some maneuvering, but the 49ers made their way into the fifth round of this year’s draft. From there, they opted for more depth instead of finding a potential starter when they took Arkansas linebacker Dre Greenlaw with the No. 148 overall pick. The selection gets a ‘D’ grade given the depth chart ahead of Greenlaw, and his limited skill set.
Greenlaw almost plays linebacker like a safety. He’s not going to fly up to the line of scrimmage and deliver a big hit, but he’s athletic enough to get sideline to sideline and make some eye-popping plays by getting east to west in a hurry. He’s also a very good coverage player.
The 49ers very likely foresee Greenlaw as a special teams contributor and reserve WILL linebacker. He has all the physical tools to step into a weakside linebacker role and thrive in coverage against tight ends, running backs and receivers. He doesn’t have the skill set to be on the field for three downs though.
Kwon Alexander and Elijah Lee will be ahead of Greenlaw on the depth chart, but with Alexander rehabbing his torn ACL, Greenlaw could start the year in a battle for a starting job with Lee.
A fully healthy 49ers defense doesn’t have a ton of room for Greenlaw unless he carves out a job as a coverage linebacker that operates almost like an additional safety on passing downs.
Finding a solid reserve and special teams ace in Round 5 isn’t bad, but Greenlaw has to stick and find a valuable niche in order to make this a reasonable pick for San Francisco.
