The Seahawks have signed Greg Olsen to a one-year deal worth $7 million, outbidding Washington and Buffalo. Olsen will be 35 next month; what exactly are they getting?
Olsen has a distinguished overall body of work – the first tight end in league history to go over 1,000 yards three years in a row. (Travis Kelce has now topped that, with four straight.)
Entering 2017, Olsen had finished between 5th and 8th in per-game tight end scoring (PPR) five years in a row.
But Olsen missed about half of the 2017 and 2018 seasons with foot injuries. He was able to stay mostly healthy last year (missing two games following a concussion) but the team around him fell apart. Olsen wasn’t much of a factor outside of three good games. He caught 6 passes for 110 yards against Tampa Bay, 8 passes for 98 yards at Green Bay, and 6 passes for 75 yards and 2 TDs against an Arizona defense that really struggled against tight ends. Those were the only touchdowns Olsen caught all year.
Olsen has finished 15th and 14th in per-game tight end production the last two years, and was well off that clip in 2017. (In the chart below, the rank shows how Olsen compared against other tight ends starting at least half the season, so no ranking for 2017, when he played only seven games.)
OLSEN: PER-GAME PRODUCTION | |||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Year | Team | St | No | Yards | TD | PPR | Rk |
2007 | Chicago | 14 | 2.8 | 27.9 | .17 | 6.6 | 19 |
2008 | Chicago | 16 | 3.4 | 35.9 | .31 | 8.8 | 11 |
2009 | Chicago | 16 | 3.8 | 38.3 | .50 | 10.6 | 14 |
2010 | Chicago | 16 | 2.6 | 25.3 | .31 | 7.0 | 26 |
2011 | Chicago | 16 | 2.8 | 33.8 | .33 | 8.2 | 19 |
2012 | Carolina | 16 | 4.3 | 52.7 | .31 | 11.5 | 8 |
2013 | Carolina | 16 | 4.6 | 51.0 | .38 | 11.9 | 7 |
2014 | Carolina | 16 | 5.3 | 63.0 | .38 | 13.8 | 5 |
2015 | Carolina | 16 | 4.8 | 69.0 | .44 | 14.3 | 6 |
2016 | Carolina | 16 | 5.0 | 67.1 | .21 | 13.0 | 5 |
2017 | Carolina | 7 | 2.4 | 27.3 | .14 | 6.0 | -- |
2018 | Carolina | 9 | 3.0 | 32.3 | .44 | 8.9 | 15 |
2019 | Carolina | 14 | 3.7 | 42.6 | .14 | 8.8 | 14 |
The Seahawks apparently believe Olsen has another good season left, because they signed him to a one-year deal worth $7 million. Probably only about a dozen tight ends will make more money in the upcoming season.
Seattle has some other options at tight end. Will Dissly was playing well last season before suffering an Achilles injury. They’ll likely re-sign Jacob Hollister, who filled in reasonably well in the second half of the season.
History shows that it’s rare to get big numbers out of old tight ends. In the last 20 years, only 11 tight ends who were at least 35 years old finished with top-15 numbers. That’s not per-game numbers, but overall. Only six others who were 34 at the end of the season finished with top-15 production.
OLDER TIGHT ENDS (last 20 years) | |||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Year | Player | Age | No | Yds | TD | PPR | Rk |
2012 | Tony Gonzalez, Atl. | 36 | 93 | 930 | 8 | 234.0 | 2 |
2014 | Antonio Gates, S.D. | 34 | 69 | 821 | 12 | 223.1 | 3 |
2013 | Tony Gonzalez, Atl. | 37 | 83 | 859 | 8 | 218.9 | 2 |
2011 | Tony Gonzalez, Atl. | 35 | 80 | 875 | 7 | 209.5 | 4 |
2015 | Benjamin Watson, N.O. | 35 | 74 | 825 | 6 | 192.5 | 7 |
2003 | Shannon Sharpe, Den. | 35 | 62 | 770 | 8 | 187.0 | 2 |
2010 | Tony Gonzalez, Atl. | 34 | 70 | 656 | 6 | 171.6 | 6 |
2016 | Jason Witten, Dall. | 34 | 69 | 673 | 3 | 154.3 | 11 |
2016 | Antonio Gates, S.D. | 36 | 53 | 548 | 7 | 149.8 | 12 |
2017 | Jason Witten, Dall. | 35 | 63 | 560 | 5 | 149.0 | 9 |
2015 | Antonio Gates, S.D. | 35 | 56 | 630 | 5 | 149.0 | 12 |
2002 | Shannon Sharpe, Den. | 34 | 61 | 686 | 3 | 147.6 | 4 |
2019 | Jason Witten, Dall. | 37 | 63 | 529 | 4 | 141.9 | 11 |
2017 | Benjamin Watson, Balt. | 37 | 61 | 522 | 4 | 137.2 | 11 |
2019 | Greg Olsen, Car. | 34 | 52 | 597 | 2 | 123.7 | 13 |
2001 | Wesley Walls, Car. | 35 | 43 | 452 | 5 | 118.2 | 11 |
2000 | Wesley Walls, Car. | 34 | 31 | 422 | 2 | 85.2 | 14 |
It’s early, but I don’t believe Olsen will be among the top-10 tight ends on my board in August. But probably top 15. He should be their primary tight end, and he’ll probably be a viable part of their red-zone offense. Russell Wilson lobbied for the Olsen signing, and he threw 7 TDs last year to Dissly and Hollister.
—Ian Allan