Greg Olsen’s comical first impression of the Seahawks’ unusual camp becomes appreciation
Greg Olsen is 35. He’s been through more than a dozen of these NFL training camps.
So excuse him for showing up to the Seahawks team facility in Renton for his first practice with Seattle, taking his COVID-19 test, putting on his helmet and—even though this was a new team for him—feeling like he was embarking on, ho-hum, yet another August grind through the same ol’ preseason drills.
Surprise!
James Brown, or Guns N’ Roses, or Kendrick Lamar—one of them, or more—blares through the sideline speakers. The volume level is at about 11 1/2. Coaches, the 20-something quality-control guys, the 40-year-old position coaches, even 65-year-old offensive line coach Mike Solari and 68-year-old head man/performance maestro Pete Carroll are windmilling their arms. They are jumping up and down. They are screaming like banshees.
As the coaches yell at them to go faster, GO HARDER!, Russell Wilson leads four-dozen Seahawks offensive players over and between blocking pads arrayed on the turf a couple yards apart. Players are bumping the bags, each other, some coming, some going. All over. Constant motion. And noise.
It’s a 45-second circus. Chaos. And it happens every day at every Seahawks preseason and regular-season practice. Their daily bag drill.
And that’s just the start of practice. The actual workout is full of R-rated smack talk between offensive and defensive players. Jamal Adams is an All-Pro for his play at safety, and in his woofin’ on the field, too. Second-year wide receiver DK Metcalf got into the faces of the veteran starters on the defense over a contested play in a scrimmage the other day. They got in his face right back. It looked and sounded like untamed dogs growling over the same bone.
Barking? That happens, too. So does Snoop Dogg.
“My first day, I was looking around. I was like, ‘What in the hell are we doing?’” Olsen said.
The former Chicago Bear and three-time Pro Bowl tight end with the Carolina Panthers until he signed with Seattle in January was still laughing, shaking his head and shrugging about it two weeks later.
He said: “It’s just not something I’m used to, you know?”
Few newcomers are.
Carroll’s players-first, be-yourself, music-blaring environment with 3-point shooting contests to begin team meetings, Bill Russell and Will Ferrell and Neil deGrasse Tyson and who knows dropping in for surprise visits, it’s all become famous among players around the league.
But until a player from the outside joins the team and experiences the, um...unconventional Seahawks ways, it does take some getting used to.
“But it’s fun. It’s contagious,” Olsen said Tuesday. “You find yourself really enjoying practice, really looking forward to practice. The coaches are into it. The staff is into it. If you are on the field, you at any moment could bust into a celebration.
“It’s a great climate to be in. They create a lot of positive energy ...
“I think guys enjoy coming to work here. And that’s been fun.”
He says the environment is “invigorating” and “re-energizing.”
Olsen has a contract with Fox Sports waiting for him to call NFL games as a broadcaster, as he did for the short-lived XFL this offseason. After he and the Panthers agreed to part ways in January, he could have stayed with Fox. Instead, he chose to start his career over at age 35 in Seattle, on a one-year contract worth $7 million. He left his wife, three kids and a dog in their permanent home in Charlotte, N.C., to come to this zoo of a training camp in Renton.
So it’s nice that he likes it.
Then again, what’s not to like.
Working with Wilson
Olsen is Seattle’s number-one tight end, in an offense that now has two it absolutely loves. Will Dissly is back from his ruptured Achilles that ended his 2019 season in October.
Expect a lot of two tight-end formations from offensive coordinator Brian Schottenheimer this season.
Veteran Luke Willson signed back this offseason. Last season’s Seahawks surprise tight end Jacob Hollister also is back. The team drafted two more tight ends this spring: fourth-round pick Colby Parkinson from Stanford remains out perhaps into October following foot surgery; seventh-round pick Stephen Sullivan from LSU has shown wide-receiver moves inside in tight coverage this month.
Olsen calls it perhaps the deepest position group he’s had in his 14 NFL training camps.
“Six guys are getting reps,” he marveled.
Perhaps most important, Olsen looks fully healthy. That’s been no sure thing for him the last couple years.
He broke his right foot, twice, the second time early in the 2018 season. He returned to play nine games that season, then ruptured the plantar fascia in that foot late in 2018. He played in just 16 games over the ‘17 and ‘18 seasons, ending that streak of 1,000-yard receiving seasons catching passes from Cam Newton in Carolina.
Those are the only seasons of his career he has failed to play in at least 14 games. From 2008 with Chicago until 2017 with Carolina, he never missed a game.
To accelerate his acclimation to the Seahawks’ offense, Olsen went south this offseason to join Wilson at the quarterback’s offseason training field in San Diego for one-on-one training.
“That was really key, to spend time with guys I hadn’t spent a lot of time with,” Wilson said.
Olsen spent the rest of his offseason in Charlotte. He and his wife Kara run his foundation based there, Receptions For Research. Each spring they host The HEARTest Yard event and 5K race in Charlotte to raise awareness and funds for children with congenital heart disorders. The Olsens’ 8-year-old son T.J. was born was a congenital heart defect.
“Greg and I have always connected, on a personal level, just him and his family and what they’ve done, what he’s done in the community,” Wilson said. “Not only what he’s had to go through with his family and his son and stuff like that, but just the leader that he is, and everything else, I’ve always admired who he is, from a distance.”
Now it’s up close. Every day.
“A fun challenge”
Wilson is seeing Olsen a lot.
Olsen is running more plays than he had in recent training camps with the Panthers. He wants to get all the learning of his new offense that he can do on the field now, with only six practices until the first regular-season game week.
“Typically in training camp, especially as I got older, we were always selective with the plays,” he said. “You know, if it was pass, or if it was a look or certain thing I needed to get in the run game or in pass protection, I was always in there to get it. But I didn’t take the extra stuff.
“Here, I find myself, when you are trying to learn a new system—I took for granted all the little things that I just came to know in my time in Carolina. So there are things I do here that the first time I do them is the first time I’ve ever done them, or it’s done a little differently than how I’d done it in the past. So every rep—whether it’s a walk-through rep or a jog-through practice, or full-speed team (scrimmage)—is so valuable. And finding that balance between, you can’t take all 80 plays every day, but you need those things. You need to mess up. You need to hear Russ say, ‘Hey, I was thinking you were going to flat there.’ You can only gain the intricacies of playing by playing.
“You can study the playbook all you want. You can ask as many questions. But until you are out there on the field doing it, that’s the only way. Messing up, or doing right, to cement it and learn from it.
“That’s definitely been unique, chomping at the bit to take every rep—but also realizing I’m not 21 anymore.
“It’s been a fun challenge.”
