Bears Have Made Olsen Available For Trade?!

**matsellah** · 07-28-2011, 01:18 AM

By Brad Biggs Tribune reporter 12:10 a.m. CDT, July 28, 2011

The Bears had a deal in place to trade Greg Olsen during the second round of the 2010 draft that didn't materialize when the Patriots drafted their own tight end.

Now, two nights before the beginning of training camp, the team may be considering trading Olsen again.

His agent Drew Rosenhaus sent a mass email to the league's general managers and personnel people at 7:56 p.m. Wednesday night announcing the Bears were making Olsen available for trade. The email went to scores of people, including Bears general manager Jerry Angelo and contract negotiator Cliff Stein.

"The Bears have granted me permission to seek a trade for Greg Olsen," Rosenhaus wrote. "Please let me know if interested. Sounds like the Bears will be very reasonable on the compensation in return for Greg."

But 11 minutes later, Rosenhaus sent another mass email to the same recipients, including Angelo and Stein, asking them to ignore his previous message.

"Please disregard my previous email regarding Greg Olsen," the one-sentence email said.

What does it mean? Clearly Rosenhaus had permission to shop Olsen or believed he had permission to shop him. One personnel executive who received the email speculated the Bears saw how fast and wide the message was sent and asked Rosenhaus to pull back.

Questions surrounded how Olsen would fit in the offense last season as coordinator Mike Martz has a history of not utilizing tight ends in the passing game. Olsen went to the front office and shared those concerns. There were rumors he would be traded before the draft and the deal with the Patriots nearly happened, according to a Bears source, before they selected Rob Gronkowski 42nd overall.

Olsen had 41 receptions for 404 yards last season and five scores, tying him for the most touchdown receptions on the team. The Bears have two other veteran tight ends on the roster in Brandon Manumaleuna and Kellen Davis.

Olsen, the club's first-round draft pick in 2007, is entering the final year of his rookie contract and will be looking for an extension or an opportunity to play elsewhere.

He was very professional about the situation last season and has developed into a leader in the locker room while being a durable performer on the field. He said the trade talk did not get to him.

"You mean the story that was made up?" Olsen told the Tribune before the start of last season. "It doesn't bother me because I know there is no truth behind it. But it does bother me that people take the liberty to just make up stories for their own personal benefit.

"There was no substance behind it. If there was, tell us. It's easy to say an unnamed source. That could be anybody."

His agent's fingerprints are on the story now

Source

**Riczaj01** · 07-28-2011, 01:22 AM

I believe it; Martz hates TE's that cannot block; and hates big targets...Olsen is the exact opposite of his interests. The longer he is here, the more pressure he will have to use him b/c the rest of the targets aren't as good.

Head hurts; need to take a stiff shot and some muscle relaxers and pretend I didn't read this.

**Jimmors** · 07-28-2011, 01:49 AM

Originally Posted by matsellah

The Bears have two other veteran tight ends on the roster in Brandon Manumaleuna and Kellen Davis.

Color me confused...what happened to Dez Clark? Did we dump him? Thought he was still on the team?

**matsellah** · 07-28-2011, 02:59 AM

“Honestly, I really don’t think I’ll be back up in Chicago,” Clark told Zach Zaidman on The Score. “Because when you look at the situation, you know, it’s still three good tight ends that they have up there. And obviously last year I was the odd man out, for whatever reason. So I just don’t see a scenario where they would bring me back up there and have four tight ends again.”

Dez Clark, 12 July 2011

tightwork88 Desmond Clark
havent heard from the bears. I don't expect it. I thought winning was the goal, So you let good players go and keep lesser players

Dez Clark, 27 July 2011
via Twitter

**4th and 26** · 07-28-2011, 04:22 AM

Well trading Olsen will probably drop the bears to the 31 best offense in the league.

**little bear** · 07-28-2011, 04:31 AM

Trading away one of our best offensive players is really dumb. Oh boy, we so need a new OC. Martz is going to #### everything up.

**The Benjamin** · 07-28-2011, 04:58 AM

Clark is a little pissy and a little egotistical..

but probably right

**Henry Burris** · 07-28-2011, 04:59 AM

We were actually better under turner in ypg and ppg.....

**Blue Horse-shoe** · 07-28-2011, 06:04 AM

The Olsen love fest has always befuddled me. Hype > Too many believe it too often. I've NEVER seen anything out of him that makes me think EXCEPTIONAL ( like an over-rated politician ) . I've always seen a guy who shy's away from contact. Sorry but it's the truth. Ya know what.. skip the sorry part. But is it his fault ? At this point I don't know .... but if he becomes an all-pro on some other team I'll be surprised ( if he gets traded ). And I mean really surprised.
Funny how we're always knocking the Mike Martz approach, in favor of 1 player who ( realistically ) has only shown marginal results since he's been here. 1 year and we're up his arse !! Is that ALL Martz gets ? F'n ridiculous. He gets a couple more . Or would ya'll prefer waiting another 2+ DECADES for another SB Champion ?

**Riczaj01** · 07-28-2011, 07:46 AM

BHS, I don't really disagree that he is overrated by most Bear fans; I agree he shy's away from contact and gets taken down by guys 1/2 his size. But he is still the most reliable threat we have; and the only big target, which is what Cutler likes. It's dumb to get rid of him w/out replacing his potential production. They don't want to trade him to upgrade, they want to trade him so they don't have to explain why they aren't using him over the crap wr's at the bottom of the rotation.

I cannot believe how much faith you have in a guy that hasn't done anything special in over a decade. Martz had a HoF rb, 2 HoF wr's, and a HoF qb. Everything came together perfectly for him in StL; and did it in the perfect place for his system...a dome. Since then he has done squat; and specifically to this discussion wasted Vernon Davis away in SF. AND this past year took a Offense, that under Ron Turner(the bane of all Chicago Fans), that almost always ranked 15th-23rd to 30th!!! The mad genious made our O WORSE! You honestly want to wait another 2 decades wasiting away on a this guy?

Here is why Martz will fail in Chicago:
Solider field=mush, Pressicion wr routes don't work well on this field.
WR talent=mediocre, Martz needs to have legit WR talent to run those routes, we don't have it. Our best is Knox, and his routes are questionable.
Blocking TE's, that is all Martz wants, and the Bears have no TE's that are blockers, Manu is worthless, and Davis is a bigger version of Olsen, ie a pansy in blocking.
Speaking of blocking, you need a top OL to protect your qb in 5-7 step drops, we are slowly getting there, but 1 guy isn't going to fix things.
The only 2 pieces we have on this O that fit's Martz's O is Forte, a hybrid RB who can catch out of the backfield and Cutler, a qb that isn't afraid to wing the ball around, and possibly for TO's.
This team is missing 4/6ths of what Martz wants/needs to run his O; which is why our O dropped from low 20's to 30th last year....and it would have been worse if Lovie and co hadn't reigned him in! Our D returning to form b/c of a passrush is what made the difference last year; if RT's crap fest of an O had merely been in the mid to late teens, we probably win more and possibly get further b/c he, for all his faults, understood where his talent was.

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