Thread: Olsen confident offense will make improve

Olsen confident offense will make great strides in 2011


By: Larry Mayer


During an in-studio appearance Monday on ESPN 1000’s “Waddle and Silvy Show,” tight end Greg Olsen said that he has high expectations for the Bears offense this season.


Greg Olsen caught 41 passes for 404 yards and five touchdowns last season. “The offense has always played second fiddle [to the Bears defense] and deservedly so,” Olsen said. “We’ve had one of the top defenses and some of the top defensive players in league history. That’s kind of the way it’s been. But we feel we have a good core nucleus of young offensive players.” Olsen feels that the offense should play with more consistency in its second season under coordinator Mike Martz and is confident the unit will make up for lost time once the lockout ends.
“It’s a little unfortunate because in normal years we would have gotten a lot of work between all the OTAs, the minicamps, and just the regular days out on the field,” he said. “We would have got a lot accomplished and learned a lot from last season. But we didn’t.
“That’s the hand that we’re dealt and we have to play a little catch-up with the coaches once training camp opens. But as players there’s a lot that we can do to prepare for the season and I think that falls on our shoulders to be ready whenever the lockout’s lifted.”
To that end, Olsen and several of his offensive teammates have been working out as a unit.
“We’ve gotten together three or four times a week through the last month or two, and it’s been good,” he said. “We get together for an hour or two. It’s been great for the guys just to get back around each other. It’s all about getting back into the swing of things and that’s really what we’re trying to accomplish so when training camp starts we have a little leg up.”
Just like teammate Brian Urlacher did a few days earlier on the same radio program, Olsen said he would welcome Plaxico Burress to the team if the Bears signed the free agent wide receiver.
“Whoever gets Plaxico—whoever it is, no matter who you have—I think you’re going to get better,” Olsen said.

“I don’t know him personally that well. He worked out with us when I was in college at Miami. He used to come down in the offseason and do his training with us. So I’ve been around him and seen him work and know a lot of guys who know him personally, and you’re not going to find a lot of people who have negative things to say about him.

"They always say he’s a hard worker and obviously his talent speaks for itself. So I think whoever gets him is going to upgrade. There aren’t many guys that big running around out there playing receiver.”