According to NFL sources, Greg Olsen will be staying on the field with the Carolina Panthers and out of the Monday Night Football booth for a few more years after signing a two-year extension that will keep him on the team through the 2020 season.
Olsen, who missed nine games with a broken foot in 2017 and didn’t make the Pro Bowl for the first time since 2013, was due to make $6.75m in 2018 after salary and workout bonuses – this extension is said to be worth $8.55m per season with incentives being available to push the payouts as high as $10.05m per year. Should he hit the full payout, it would make Olsen the highest-paid tight end in the league based on average per year; however, should he make his base, a cap hit of $8.55m would be the ninth-highest in the league among tight ends in 2019, sandwiched between Trey Burton and Jermaine Gresham.
Olsen made it clear within the last two weeks that he wanted an extension which would ensure that he would finish his career with the Carolina Panthers, and it would appear that new general manager Marty Hurney has made that a reality – Olsen will be 35 years old when the 2020 season concludes and this contract has ended.
“It’s a huge year for me,” Olsen told Panthers.com two weeks ago. “This is my last year on my deal. We did the extension before the Super Bowl year, which now feels like a long time ago. I’ve been able to keep playing well, but unfortunately last year I broke my foot and missed half the season. I was still able to come back and play well. I know I can play for years more if I want to. I’m not concerned about that.”
The former 2007 first-round pick gets his extension on the same day of the first round of an NFL Draft where rumors have flown about the Panthers finding his heir apparent – the team currently only has Olsen and Chris Manhertz on the roster and is expected to pull the trigger on another tight end, perhaps as early as the first round. Olsen had crossed the 1,000-yard threshold for three consecutive seasons and played on over 95% of the team’s snaps since 2012 before breaking his foot in a Week 2 matchup with the Buffalo Bills and being placed on injured reserve, only to return in Week 11 against the New York Jets before a Week 14 return to form against the Packers in which he caught 9-of-12 targets for 116 yards and a touchdown.
Olsen also had 8 catches for 107 yards and a score in the Wild Card loss to the New Orleans Saints that finished the Panthers 2017 campaign, Olsen’s eighth with the team.
