Greg Olsen‘s first free agency tour will produce a deal with the Seahawks. The veteran tight end will choose Seattle over Buffalo and Washington, according to Adam Schefter of ESPN.com (on Twitter).
The 13-year veteran agreed to a one-year, $7MM deal with the Seahawks, per Schefter, who adds this pact comes with $5.5MM guaranteed. The chance to play with Russell Wilson helped make Seattle a more attractive destination than those with ex-Panthers staffers in place, per Schefter (on Twitter).
Wilson has gone through a few tight ends since Jimmy Graham‘s departure. Ed Dickson experienced consistent injury troubles over the past two years; so has promising youngster Will Dissly. Olsen will add a proven weapon to Seattle’s pass-catching corps, coming in for his age-35 season.
The Seahawks last season were down both Dickson and Dissly, and they traded Nick Vannett to the Steelers early in the season. Jacob Hollister started both playoff games. Barring injury, Olsen will be in line to join Tyler Lockett and D.K. Metcalf as one of Wilson’s top three targets next season. The Seahawks will be Olsen’s third team, following the Bears and Panthers.
In nine Carolina seasons, Olsen became one of the best players in franchise history. He eclipsed 1,000 yards en route to three Pro Bowls from 2014-16 and helped the Panthers to a 15-1 season that produced an NFC championship. Since coming into the league as a first-round pick out of Miami in 2007, Olsen has 8,444 receiving yards — third-most in the NFL among tight ends in that span.
Olsen, however, experienced significant foot trouble late in his Panthers tenure. Although Olsen played 14 games last season, he missed 16 games between the 2017-18 campaigns because of multiple foot maladies. This marks another injury-prone tight end on Seattle’s roster. The potentially rebuilding Panthers released Olsen, who had one more season left on his Carolina contract, earlier this month.
This will put Ron Rivera‘s Redskins in the market for another tight end and may move Sean McDermott‘s Bills to pursue one as well. FOX will need to delay plans to hire Olsen for one of its Sunday broadcast teams as well. The network has used Olsen for multiple broadcasts late in his career and made him an offer to join full-time this offseason.
That’s a lot of money for an older guy with injury issues. Can certainly see why Olsen wanted to join Russell Wilson and Pete Carroll, particularly with a good offer like that on the table. Hope the Seahawks and Olsen both have a great season next year.
The Redskins project with Dwayne Haskins and Ron Rivera will only be in year one next year. It’s at least a two year if not three year build up to a serious conference championship contender.
The Redskins won’t even sniff the playoffs as long as Dan Snyder is at the helm, let alone be a “conference championship contender”. You’re delusional.
While I lean towards agreeing with you, the fact that Bruce Allen is finally gone means that there is more hope than there has been for a decade. Granted, that doesn’t take much.
Snyder era playoff appearances 1999, 2005, 2007, 2012, 2015. Division champion 1999, 2012, 2015.
You can take your knee-jerk negativity and crawl back under the rock from under which you crawled out. Bruce Allen was a real problem for Redskins football operations. Dan Snyder, like most of the owners in the league, is just an annoyance.
Next concussion might be his last. He needs to hang it up
Lot of dough for him
I feel like he can still play if healthy but clearly not the player he once was and maybe it’s me but I feel Seattle doesn’t really use offensive weapons like other teams do. They are defense, run the ball and have Wilson make just enough plays with his legs and arm to keep them in or win games. They don’t feel the ball to any particular offensive weapon, although Metcalf seemed to kind of change that narrative towards the end of the season and in the playoffs. But still don’t see him ballin out there. Nice pick up but lot of money for someone who might not be healthy and might not contribute a whole lot. Not sure their cap situation but you’d think they’d be trying to bring back Clowney. Unless they have cap space for that still.
Clowney wants record money. That means he goes to a noncontending team most likely.
But he did say likes it in Seattle. And Seattle has freed up a good amount of cap space. We shall see…
Seattle had around $49 mill in cap space. I think Clowney stays. He wants to play for a contender and likes it here. The Clark trade wasn’t all about money out was about picks. They turned that trade into five picks I think and Metcalf was one of them.
I am not sure Olsen will have a ton of production but he will make them guard him to tie up a LBer. That will help the run game. He will be more of a teacher I believe. I would love him to have a 1k yard season with a half dozen or more TDs. I don’t see it though. He will be a lot like Clowney the stats don’t tell how much he changed the game.
Seattle uses their tight ends a lot…..a signing for Olsen….
In 2020 he will get a chance to show the Bears how easily he can beat their defense…that should be fun.
Jimmy Graham might be available too, if they want a younger even slower (and less productive) TE than Olsen.
We already did that