Big Play Dre was born a decade ago, not from hulking muscle but from film study. A boy adopted by a defensive coordinator dedicated his life to this.
Big Play Dre was born, for one date, on Sept. 13, 2014, when 17-year-old Dre Greenlaw went rogue in Arkansas. Darryl Patton’s Fayetteville High School juggernaut was locked in a battle with familiar rival Jefferson City. As the huddles broke on one play, Patton’s star defensive back was supposed to be covering Jeff City’s No. 3 receiver. Except he wasn’t.
Patton barked at his assistants, bewildered.
Hey, guy’s uncovered! Guy’s uncovered!
On the snap, the quarterback pivoted and fired a hot route to his seemingly wide-open target. Except Greenlaw shot out of a chamber, and somehow beat the receiver to the spot. Seconds later, he pulled into the end zone with a pick-six.
Later, he told his coaches he’d studied Jeff City’s tape enough to know he could bait that play.
“You’ll see him sometimes be out of position, but he’ll end up with the ball, by the ball,” Patton recalled. “And it’s one of those things you’re going, ‘Oh, crap, Dre, Dre, no … good play, Dre! Great play.’
“It was, Big Play Dre.”
Big Play Dre was NFL-made, for another date, on Nov. 11, 2019, when Greenlaw started his fourth game with the San Francisco 49ers. He’d begun the year battling for reps with Kwon Alexander, who’d just signed a four-year deal that offseason. But Alexander was placed on IR after the previous game, and so the rookie Greenlaw found himself in the middle of a primetime game against the division-rival Seahawks — and promptly picked off Russell Wilson in overtime of an eventual loss.
As Greenlaw tucked the interception and ran it back 47 yards, fellow 49ers linebacker Fred Warner marveled how natural the kid looked with the ball in his hands.
“In that moment,” Warner recalled, “it’s like, ‘Dang, this really is Big Play Dre.’”
In March this offseason, the Broncos shelled out $11.5 million guaranteed for that. For Big Play Dre, the ballhawk ILB. The only soft spot of a third-ranked Denver defense in 2024 was up the middle, where the Broncos’ linebackers delivered largely mediocre marks in coverage, according to Pro Football Focus grades.
The 28-year-old Greenlaw, one of the heartbeats of a San Francisco defense that made two Super Bowls in five years, is an instant upgrade. In 2023, he allowed the fewest receptions over expected in coverage of any NFL linebacker, according to NFL’s Next Gen Stats. The Broncos wanted him. And Greenlaw wanted to be wanted, a former foster kid who still craves feeling accepted.
His three-year deal in free agency is no sure thing. Greenlaw played all of two games in 2024 after a freak torn Achilles in 2023’s Super Bowl. He has been set back by quad troubles all through the offseason and training camp. But if healthy, he gives the Broncos a playmaking element at inside linebacker that they haven’t had since the days of Danny Trevathan.
“There’s an intensity to how he plays,” Broncos head coach Sean Payton said in late July. “And it’s just — he’s one of those players that, if you put the film on and didn’t say anything, at some point early you would ask, ‘Who’s this guy?’”
His sideline-to-sideline intensity as a 230-pound tank of a tackler drew Payton’s eyes.
Greenlaw began his career as a rangy safety playing on instincts. Patton has long been close with then-Arkansas coach Bret Bielema, and he begged him to recruit Greenlaw.
Bielema hemmed. Bielema hawed. He didn’t know if Greenlaw was fast enough or big enough. He didn’t know if Greenlaw was a safety or a linebacker.
Eventually, Bielema agreed to send defensive coordinator Robb Smith down to Fayetteville High one Friday night in October. Greenlaw, Patton remembered, had three picks. After the Fayetteville win, Smith walked off the field with Patton.
“Why in the hell,” Patton remembered Smith asking, “have we not offered this kid?”
The defensive-back gene never died, even after Greenlaw arrived at Arkansas and converted to linebacker. Bielema put stripes on players’ helmets at practices at Arkansas, to see where their eyes tracked. Greenlaw’s eyes were always in the right place, Bielema remembered. Eventually, he told his defensive coaches to not slow Greenlaw down.
“He’s going to see things and play things at a higher level easier than other players,” Bielema remembered saying. “Let’s not make him overthink.”
Denver Broncos linebacker Dre Greenlaw (57) during training camp at Broncos Park Powered by CommonSpirit in Centennial on Friday, July 25, 2025. (Photo by Andy Cross/The Denver Post)
Denver Broncos linebacker Dre Greenlaw (57) during training camp at Broncos Park Powered by CommonSpirit in Centennial on Friday, July 25, 2025. (Photo by Andy Cross/The Denver Post)
Greenlaw moved his family to a permanent residence in the Dallas-Fort Worth area, simply because it’s a main hub for offseason training. He has two gyms in that house.
This offseason, agent J.R. Carroll asked Greenlaw if he’d help review some pre-draft film of another client, Ole Miss linebacker Chris Paul Jr. Carroll was hoping he’d offer feedback on a few plays. Greenlaw downloaded Paul’s entire season.
“He enjoys watching film,” Carroll said, “like any other person would enjoy watching a sitcom.”
Greenlaw “loved” defensive coordinator Vance Joseph’s scheme in evaluating teams in free agency, Carroll said. And the safety-turned-linebacker’s mind will now make up the central nervous system of Denver’s defense.
“I don’t think people understand,” Warner said, “how intelligent of a football player Dre is.”
Fewest receptions over expected in coverage, linebackers, 2023 NFL season
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Name Team Rec. Over Expected
Dre Greenlaw San Francisco -7.9
Ernest Jones Los Angeles Rams -7.7
Frankie Luvu Carolina -7.6
Devin White Tampa Bay -7.0
Markquese Bell Dallas -4.9
Source: NFL Next Gen Stats
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