Former Carolina Panthers tight end Greg Olsen has picked the Seattle Seahawks over the Buffalo Bills according to ESPN’s Adam Schefter. He had taken reported visits with Washington, Seattle, and Buffalo and Schefter reports he had negotiated with all three, as well.
Olsen’s deal is for one season and up to $7 million with $5.5 million guaranteed.
“Greg Olsen really liked Buffalo and Washington, and strongly considered both,” tweeted Schefter. “But the lure of playing with Russell Wilson in Seattle was just too strong.”
Clearly no one can argue with this logic. Wilson was an MVP candidate in 2019 while Josh Allen was a sophomore QB who failed to consistently impress with his passing and Dwayne Haskins was a struggling rookie. That trumped the connections at the other two stops with former Panthers.
Bills general manager Brandon Beane was on the personnel staff that brought Olsen to Carolina and head coach Sean McDermott was the defensive coordinator. Tight ends coach Rob Boras was Olsen’s TE coach when he started his career with the Chicago Bears. Several former Panthers coaches followed Ron Rivera to Washington when he was named their head coach, as well.
For Buffalo, it boosts the argument to keep Tyler Kroft on the roster, but not by much. The Bills could still be looking to upgrade in the free-agent tight end market a month from now. We covered that earlier this month here.
On another angle, Dawson Knox showed plenty in his rookie season and they have Tommy Sweeney developing, as well. With the flashes we saw from Knox in 2019, he just needs to cure his dropsies and he could be an elite tight end in the NFL.