Panthers tight end Greg Olsen has already begun preparing for his post-playing career, having auditioned to be an analyst on ESPN’s Monday Night Football last March. At the time, it was also reported that Olsen could be in the mix for FOX’s Thursday Night Football.
Instead, Olsen signed a two-year extension with the Panthers that keeps him under club control through the 2020 campaign. However, his 2018 season was derailed by a foot injury for the second year in a row, and both ESPN and FOX are once again attempting to bring him on board.
Per Andrew Marchand of the New York Post, both networks have extended multi-million dollar offers to Olsen. Neither offer would match the $3.4MM that Olsen could earn from the Panthers this year if he continues playing, and Marchand suggests that the soon-to-be 34-year-old is presently leaning towards putting retirement on hold. But that could change if the networks increase their offers a bit or if they present him with a clear path to even more opportunities. For instance, Marchand reports that FOX is prepared to put Olsen in the booth as a color commentator, but it would probably need to put him on the No. 2 or No. 3 broadcast team to convince him to sign on.
Olsen’s prospective role with ESPN is less clear, though the worldwide leader did recently drop Charles Woodson from its “Sunday NFL Countdown” program and could be looking at Olsen as a replacement. Marchand also says that CBS met with Olsen but is not pursuing him at this time.
Olsen suited up for only nine games last year after playing in just seven in 2017, and the injuries are doubtlessly taking a toll on him. But he appeared in all 16 regular season games for the Bears and Panthers from 2008-16, and he can still be a productive player when healthy. The three-time Pro Bowler has been one of the best tight ends in the league since joining Carolina via trade in 2011, and he topped 100 targets every year from 2012-16.
He finished the 2018 season with 27 catches for 291 yards and four touchdowns.
Bears should have never let him go. They also didn’t know how to use him so it worked out for him when traded.
The search for the next Mike Ditka will continue for a while longer.
I guess we can conclude from this that the networks have no interest at all in Gronk if he were to retire.
ESPN needs to replace the entire MNF crew. Olsen can replace clown number 1: Jason Witten. Then they need to replace the other 2 clowns