I didn’t understand the signing of Greg Olsen. He’s an older guy who might be breaking down, and I thought Seattle was set at tight end with Will Dissly and Jacob Hollister. But the Seahawks signed him to a nice contract, so I guess they think he’ll be an upgrade at that position.
Dissly is probably their long-term guy there, but he’s coming off an Achilles injury. They’re saying they expect him to be ready for their opener, but that will be subject to developments.
I thought Hollister played pretty well last year; he caught 36 passes and 3 TDs in the second half of the season. But he’s not as experienced as Olsen, and there must be something else about the veteran that they like. Russell Wilson lobbied for him to be signed.
But Olsen is a high-risk pick. He's 35, and he’s had multiple foot injuries in the last few years.
History indicates that it’s unusual for tight ends of that age to put up good numbers. In the last 20 years, only 11 tight ends who’ve been at least 35 years old have put up top-20 numbers in a season. That’s 11 out of 400 top-20 slots – over 97 percent of tight ends finishing with top-20 numbers have been under 35 years old.
We’ll see how it plays out. Not a guy I expect to draft in my leagues.
OLDER TIGHT ENDS WITH TOP-20 NUMBERS | ||||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Year | Player, Tm | Age | Rec | Yds | Avg | TD | PPR | Rk |
2013 | Tony Gonzalez, Atl. | 37 | 83 | 859 | 10.4 | 8 | 218.9 | 2 |
2017 | Benjamin Watson, Balt. | 37 | 61 | 522 | 8.6 | 4 | 137.2 | 11 |
2019 | Jason Witten, Dall. | 37 | 63 | 529 | 8.4 | 4 | 141.9 | 11 |
2012 | Tony Gonzalez, Atl. | 36 | 93 | 930 | 10.0 | 8 | 234.0 | 2 |
2016 | Antonio Gates, S.D. | 36 | 53 | 548 | 10.3 | 7 | 149.8 | 12 |
2001 | Wesley Walls, Car. | 35 | 43 | 452 | 10.5 | 5 | 118.2 | 11 |
2003 | Shannon Sharpe, Den. | 35 | 62 | 770 | 12.4 | 8 | 187.0 | 2 |
2011 | Tony Gonzalez, Atl. | 35 | 80 | 875 | 10.9 | 7 | 209.5 | 4 |
2015 | Benjamin Watson, N.O. | 35 | 74 | 825 | 11.2 | 6 | 192.5 | 7 |
2015 | Antonio Gates, S.D. | 35 | 56 | 630 | 11.3 | 5 | 149.0 | 12 |
2017 | Jason Witten, Dall. | 35 | 63 | 560 | 8.9 | 5 | 149.0 | 9 |
2000 | Wesley Walls, Car. | 34 | 31 | 422 | 13.6 | 2 | 85.2 | 14 |
2002 | Shannon Sharpe, Den. | 34 | 61 | 686 | 11.3 | 3 | 147.6 | 4 |
2010 | Tony Gonzalez, Atl. | 34 | 70 | 656 | 9.4 | 6 | 171.6 | 6 |
2014 | Antonio Gates, S.D. | 34 | 69 | 821 | 11.9 | 12 | 223.1 | 3 |
2016 | Jason Witten, Dall. | 34 | 69 | 673 | 9.8 | 3 | 154.3 | 11 |
2019 | Greg Olsen, Car. | 34 | 52 | 597 | 11.5 | 2 | 123.7 | 13 |
—Ian Allan