At the NFL owners meetings last April in Palm Beach, Fla., San Francisco coach Kyle Shanahan lamented having just lost linebacker Dre Greenlaw in free agency to the Broncos.

Now he’s got him back.

After Greenlaw was officially released by the Broncos on Thursday morning with a post-June 1 designation, the 49ers reached an agreement in the afternoon to bring him back on a one-year, $7.5 million deal. Greenlaw had been a San Francisco stalwart from 2019 to 2024 before spending one injury-riddled season with Denver.

“I love it for San Francisco because now that’s putting him and (fellow linebacker) Fred Warner back together but once again the question is, ‘Can he stay healthy?” said Nick Ferguson, a Denver media personality who was a Broncos safety from 2003 2007 and a 49ers defensive assistant from 2017 to 2018 under Shanahan.

Greenlaw, 28, couldn’t stay healthy last season. He missed all of training camp with a quad injury and then the entire preseason and the first six games of the regular season with a different hamstring injury. He missed the final two regular-season games with a hamstring injury and sat out another due to an NFL suspension for verbally abusing a referee. He played in eight regular-season games and the Broncos’ two playoff games while always being on a pitch count following his injuries. He was in for just 43.7% of the postseason defensive snaps.

The Broncos informed Greenlaw of his impending release Monday after having agreed to re-sign free agents Alex Singleton and Justin Strnad to be their starting inside linebackers in 2026. Greenlaw had been in line to make a base salary of $7.47 million in 2026, and the Broncos will save $8.19 million on the salary cap this year with his release.

Now he’s back in San Francisco, where his injury problems started when he suffered a torn Achilles tendon in Super Bowl LVIII in February 2024 and then played in just two games in 2024. Nonetheless, Shanahan said at last year’s owners meetings he had really wanted to bring back Greenlaw and that he and general manager John Lynch flew to the linebacker’s home in Texas in a last-ditch attempt to keep him from signing with Denver.

“We took another shot and we weren’t able to get it done,’’ Shanahan, the son of legendary Broncos coach Mike Shanahan, said in Palm Beach while calling Greenlaw a “great” player and person.

Greenlaw signed a three-year, $34.5 million deal with the Broncos last March and was considered a marquee addition. But it didn’t work out.

“Everybody did,’’ Karl Mecklenburg, a Broncos star linebacker from 1983 to 1994, said Thursday about there having been high hopes when Greenlaw signed. “He was the name out there. But he didn’t do a lot last year. He was all right, but he wasn’t outstanding, and he was hurt. When you have all the right tools in (one) defense, that doesn’t mean you’ll have the right tools to play in anybody else’s defense.”

Ferguson said Greenlaw was always behind last year in learning coordinator Vance Joseph’s defense due to missing spring drills, preseason and the start of the regular season. Mecklenburg and Ferguson both said the Broncos made the proper decision after their 14-3 season in letting Greenlaw go and planning to have Strnad and Singleton as their starters.

“They did the right thing because continuity is key,’’ Ferguson said. “Those guys know Vance Joseph’s defense and that’s important. … They were trying to go back with familiarity and both of those guys, they played well for the team.”

Strnad, previously Denver’s top reserve linebacker, told The Denver Gazette after last season that he was seeking a multiyear deal and to be a regular starter. So Strnad, who got a three-year, $18 million deal and will return for a seventh Denver season, likely would not have re-signed had Greenlaw not been released. Singleton is entering his fifth Broncos season after re-signing on a two-year, $15 million deal.

After the Broncos made the decision Monday to part with Greenlaw, The Denver Gazette reported Tuesday that he would be released after the start of Wednesday’s new NFL league year as a post-June 1 designation. That allows the Broncos to split dead money on Greenlaw’s release over two years, rather than one.

That means the Broncos will have $2.167 million extra on the salary cap this year, with it becoming available June 1. But they will also have $2.167 million of dead money from Greenlaw’s deal on the 2027 cap.

Now, Kyle Shanahan has back a player he has long admired. Adding to the drama, the Broncos will play at San Francisco in 2026.