This one hurts.

When it was announced that Dre Greenlaw signed a three-year, $35 million contract with the Denver Broncos, it made sense why the 49ers let him go. They simply couldn’t afford to commit themselves long-term to a linebacker coming off an injury.

But now the contract details of Greenlaw’s deal with Denver have come out, and it’s clear his contract essentially is a one-year deal with team options for more.

Greenlaw has no guaranteed money in his contract after this year. So while it’s a three-year, $35 million deal on paper, in reality, it’s a one-year, $11.5 million contract. Nothing more is guaranteed. And that’s more than reasonable for a player such as Greenlaw who is absolutely dominant when healthy.

The 49ers probably offered Greenlaw a one-year deal worth significantly less than $11.5 million, which is silly considering they gave backup tight end Luke Farrell nearly $7 million per season and they gave fullback Kyle Juszczyk $4 million per season.

Instead of signing those two non-offensive-linemen blocking specialists, the 49ers could have given that money to Greenlaw and signed a player with real upside. A player who truly is a leader in the locker room, not just a mouthpiece for the coaching staff.

In retrospect, the 49ers never truly embraced and marketed Greenlaw as a core member of their team. He rarely spoke to the media at the podium. And now he leaves with no goodbye.

Cold world.