Add Dre Greenlaw and Talanoa Hufanga to the long list of free agents the 49ers want to re-sign this offseason.
Greenlaw and Hufanga each missed most of the season due to injuries — Greenlaw was recovering from an Achilles tear, and Hufanga was recovering from an ACL tear. Then he returned and injured his wrist.
Now they’re both healthy. And as a result, the 49ers defense has improved dramatically. No wonder head coach Kyle Shanahan wants to re-sign both players this offseason when they hit free agency.
“Those are two of the better players I’ve been around and two of the better players on our team and two of the main reasons we’ve had the success here we’ve had,” Shanahan said on Wednesday. “So, hopefully we can do everything we can to work out keeping them here because they’re as much of examples of 49ers as anyone I can think of.”
It’s no surprise that Shanahan would want to keep two veterans who know his system and have had lots of success with the 49ers. The issue is their injury history. Greenlaw has dealt with injuries his entire career and Hufanga has dealt with them since college. At some point, if the 49ers want to get healthier as a team, they have to prioritize adding younger, more durable players and not re-signing ones who play only part of the season.
Instead of signing both Greenlaw and Hufanga, the 49ers should sign one of them and let the other walk.
