solorca
Footballguy
I've discussed Greg Olsen in a number of threads over the past few months, so I thought I would start a thread about him, because I think a lot of people are missing out on the opportunity to buy him at a steep discount.
I am a Panthers homer and I typically avoid Carolina players just because I don't want to run the risk of overvaluing them. Olsen is someone I make an exception for though. A lot of people will point to Jeremy Shockey and claim that he took opportunities away from Olsen last year, but that isn't the case. The thing that caused Olsen to perform at a lower level as the season progressed was an injury to Jeff Otah. When Otah was out of games, Olsen, as the better blocker, was asked to block quite a bit...and was basically used as a extra offensive lineman much of the time. In addition to Otah's injury, Carolina had young players on the line and had a number of smaller injuries throughout the season that kept Olsen from ever being able to get back into a better receiving situation.
With Otah back, and an extra year under the belt of some of the younger lineman, I full expect Olsen to be used extensively as a receiver. Keep in mind, Chudzinski was the tight ends coach for San Diego, so he certainly knows how to use a young tight end. Last year was simply the case of having to adjust to the situation.
I read a stat the other day that Olsen/Shockey combined would have been TE3 in fantasy. Prior to Otah getting hurt (he played 3-4 games early in the year, while being inactive occasionally, prior to a later IR injury), Olsen was used in a vast majority of the pass catching situations. It was only when Olsen blocked more heavily that he was used less as a pass catcher.
I see Olsen putting up at least 900 yards and 8 touchdowns this year. If I had to predict a season total, I would go with...
67/920/8
By the way, here are Olsen's stats in the four games Otah played last year (weeks 1, 3, 4, 5)...
Week 1 - 4/78
Week 3 - 7/57/1
Week 4 - 5/50/1
Week 5 - 3/21/1 (Otah got hurt relatively early in this game)
In those 4 games, he had 28 targets (7.0 per game). In the other 12, he had 61 (5.08 per game)
This averages to 14.4 point per game in a ppr league. That would place him at TE4 based on averages, behind Graham, Gronkowski, and Hernandez.
I am a Panthers homer and I typically avoid Carolina players just because I don't want to run the risk of overvaluing them. Olsen is someone I make an exception for though. A lot of people will point to Jeremy Shockey and claim that he took opportunities away from Olsen last year, but that isn't the case. The thing that caused Olsen to perform at a lower level as the season progressed was an injury to Jeff Otah. When Otah was out of games, Olsen, as the better blocker, was asked to block quite a bit...and was basically used as a extra offensive lineman much of the time. In addition to Otah's injury, Carolina had young players on the line and had a number of smaller injuries throughout the season that kept Olsen from ever being able to get back into a better receiving situation.
With Otah back, and an extra year under the belt of some of the younger lineman, I full expect Olsen to be used extensively as a receiver. Keep in mind, Chudzinski was the tight ends coach for San Diego, so he certainly knows how to use a young tight end. Last year was simply the case of having to adjust to the situation.
I read a stat the other day that Olsen/Shockey combined would have been TE3 in fantasy. Prior to Otah getting hurt (he played 3-4 games early in the year, while being inactive occasionally, prior to a later IR injury), Olsen was used in a vast majority of the pass catching situations. It was only when Olsen blocked more heavily that he was used less as a pass catcher.
I see Olsen putting up at least 900 yards and 8 touchdowns this year. If I had to predict a season total, I would go with...
67/920/8
By the way, here are Olsen's stats in the four games Otah played last year (weeks 1, 3, 4, 5)...
Week 1 - 4/78
Week 3 - 7/57/1
Week 4 - 5/50/1
Week 5 - 3/21/1 (Otah got hurt relatively early in this game)
In those 4 games, he had 28 targets (7.0 per game). In the other 12, he had 61 (5.08 per game)
This averages to 14.4 point per game in a ppr league. That would place him at TE4 based on averages, behind Graham, Gronkowski, and Hernandez.
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