There were already questions to be answered by Greg Olsen heading into his 13th season in the NFL, two years – and two foot surgeries – removed from three straight 1,000 yard seasons where he was voted to the Pro Bowl to represent the NFC.
Would he play out his contract that is set to pay him just over $11m over the next two seasons? Would he split playing time and pass the torch to second-year tight end Ian Thomas, who played extremely well in Olsen’s stead the final three games of the season? Could he return to the level of play and avoid another injury to the fifth metatarsal that had caused him to miss 16 games over the past two seasons after playing every game for five straight years?
The volume of the questions only grew louder after a New York Post report this week that the tight end who turns 34 next month had offers from both ESPN and FOX to work in a broadcast booth for them, the second offseason in a row that rumors swirled about Olsen leaving the field for the booth, but Ron Rivera said Thursday morning that he expected Olsen to be back in a Panthers uniform in 2019 – and he was excited about the possibility of both Olsen and Thomas on the field at the same time.
“I know this much – Greg has told me he wants to play,” said Rivera. “Looking at what we had our first two years with [Jeremy] Shockey and really, going forward, we have a young man in Ian who has a tremendous skillset very similar to Greg’s, who needs a lot of seasoning. Greg is still a very valuable player and veteran guy who can really help this football team.”
“Plus, knowing what he went through, and the type of fix he had was supposed to be better than last year’s fix, just because of the nature of the whole medical procedure.”
Olsen had surgery after Week 2 of the 2017 season and returned later in the season, only to re-break the same bone the first game of 2018 and eschew another procedure before finally giving way to the injury in Week 14 of last season.
The tight end had his second foot surgery, this one involving a bone graft and screw replacement, to repair the Jones Fracture in December and is expected to be fully healthy for organized team activities in the spring.
The volume of those questions grew to a roar only a few hours after Rivera asserted that he expected Olsen back when Monday Night Football analyst Jason Witten left the Monday Night Football booth to return to the Dallas Cowboys on a one-year, $3.5m deal. The 15-year veteran tight end spent only one year with the flagship NFL program – that seat has been filled by Tony Kornheiser, Dennis Miller and Jon Gruden, among others, during the past decade.
So while Rivera is confident in the return of Olsen, the temptation of perhaps the most prestigious announcing gig in football, the same gig that he famously auditioned for last March, may prove to be too strong – but that’s another question that only Olsen can answer.
