Report: QB specialist has interviewed to be Bears OC |
We knew the Bears would have tons of applicants for their vacant OC job, and over the past week, you have seen the list of names the Bears want to talk to. One list you didn't see was the list of names the Bears have already spoken to, and that is because Chicago kept that under wraps and has only talked to one person about the job so far.
That person is long-time offensive coordinator Greg Olson, as he has already interviewed for the Bears OC position. No, we are not talking about current NFL analyst and former Chicago Bear TE Greg Olson, but instead a coach with nearly three decades of experience under his belt, most of that coming on the offensive side of the ball. Like Shane Waldron, who is listed as a target for the job, Olson is currently working on the Seattle Seahawks staff, where he spent this past season as the team's QB coach. When you look at the improvements Geno Smith has made since coming to Seattle, one can't help but notice, and Olson deserves a ton of credit for that. If he can do that with a guy like Smith, imagine what he could do with Justin Fields or, potentially, Caleb Williams running this offense. Before his gig in Seattle, Olson was the Las Vegas Raiders OC, but his coaching carousel goes way beyond that. With Pete Carroll no longer the coach in Seattle, most of his assistants are expected to take positions elsewhere as they have yet to learn what the future holds. Olson is one of those coaches believed to be moving on, but the Seahawks would love for him to stay if they can work something out with the new coach coming in. Olson got his start in the coaching ranks with the 49ers in 2001 before linking up with the Bears in 2003. He was the Bears QB coach during that season, and for the most part, the Bears had consistent QB play even if it wasn't great. After one season in Chicago, Olson was off to Detroit for two seasons and then the Rams, where he served as both teams' OC and QB coach. Olson continued to venture through the NFC, spending four seasons in Tampa as the OC and QB coach before landing an assistant head coaching job with the Jaguars in 2012. Since then, Olson has bounced between five different organizations, with repeat stops with the Rams and Raiders, where he has been the QB Coach or the OC each time. The amount of respect this man has around the league is second to none, but when you look at his overall success as a coach, you can see why. Not only do his offenses typically land in the top third of the league, but he always gets the most out of the QBs that he coaches. You can look at Smith this season, and then you can look at some of his other stops and the QBs he worked with. Even when the team didn't have the most talent around the offense, Olson was able to make do with the talent at hand and was at least getting consistent QB play under center. That is something the Bears haven't had since Jay Cutler, and although Fields has shown plenty of flashes of what he can do, the consistency isn't there. Olson would be one of those guys to hold Fields accountable as he would get him to play more consistently and know how to use the weapons around him properly. He would turn this offense into a top 15 offense or even a top 10 offense, which would be huge for this team. Olson has held many titles along the way, but all of them circle back to being a QB coach or OC. That is his bread and butter, and that is where he has made a name for himself since arriving in the NFL. That is quite a resume, but his resume goes even further back than that as he spent one season with Drew Brees in College and is credited with Brees reaching his potential as a player with Purdue before unleashing a hall-of-fame career. He has been doing this for a while and would be a great addition to this Bears coaching staff in many ways. Even if he hasn't called plays for that many organizations, he knows what he is doing on the offensive side of the ball and would be an instant upgrade for this coaching staff.
