Mike Martz and Greg Olsen will be OK

that’s for sure, but he isn’t that hardest guy to tackle. Thats shouldn’t matter though. What should matter instead is if he fights off defenders to get to the ball in the first place.

“soft” and finesse player are not the same thing. Also, a player who concentrates on making the catch when he hears the footsteps will be easier to tackle. Olsen is the kinda guy who concentrates on the catch rather than the yards. He has made a lot of fighting catches that might have hit the dirt were he more concerned with the defender, the hit, or the extra yards. Considering how many targets he got, he had very few drops. In fact, he’s had only 6 over the past three years, which is less than half of what Vernon Davis dropped just this year, and equal or less than the number of drops in just this last year from Fred Davis, Brent Celek, Dallas Clark, Visanthe Shiancoe, Antonio Gates, Daniel Coats, Randy McMichael, Martellus Bennett, Donald Lee, Brandon Pettigrew and Jason Witten. In other words, this soft TE holds onto the ball even when he knows the hit’s coming.

Would one of you just write a well written fan-post with a survey, and let people vote.

Is Greg Olsen soft? With a Yes and No would be sufficient.

that one play against pittsburgh is is 1 spectacular play. and he was injured but the defender wasn’t. Like I have said I have been watching greg olson play since he was at the U. the guy is soft. He has decent hands, but he certainly isn’t tough or strong. I think he can be productive in martz’ offense, but he is still soft. He is a flopping TE. That is just who he is and as a TE in the NFL he is one of the softest. he is fast and tall and has a good relationship with Cutler, but are yall seriously trying to say olson is tough and strong compared to other TEs let alone the elite TEs? puuhhhlease

Wasn’t he goin up to make the first catch and got drill. then got up? I beleive it was in the 1st half. Then goes and does it again in the 2nd half. Plus he did drag a couple of ATL dbs for a couple yards as well. please correct me if im wrong.

He can’t out jump shorter players. In the Pitt game he dropped the ball the first time Clark hit him, but to his credit he caught that second one. I hate that he can’t catch the jump ball in the endzone a majority of the time. He doesn’t do anything great or even very good. He is a middle of the pack TE worth a 5th rd or lower pick. Maybe he will get better. If you show highlight of any player, they look great. I watched him all season and was disappointed. I thought he would have been a lot better. He lost that Carolina game the year before too. Don’t forget those fumbles!

Olsen isn’t Mike Ditka, John Mackey, or Mark Bavaro for that matter. He’s a finesse player. He isn’t gonna make the highlight reel for breaking tackles and he will never be a great blocker.

But he’s a good route runner with enough speed to give some LB’s fits and he has enough size to be a tough cover for most DB’s.

He is what he is.

Also I would prefer a receiver who catches the ball and goes down to one that can’t catch but will run on the off chance he makes a catch. Having good hands is pretty important.

But intangibles like toughness and softness are hard to measure.

When Cutler used to throw jumpballs up to Brandon Marshall and BMarsh would come down with the ball almost every time, it doesn’t say that on the stats. There’s no “jumpballs won” or “CBs owned” stat categories. But that’s a reputation he’s earned. When Olsen rarely catches anything that’s off target, or routinely seems to ignore fighting for extra yardage or a giving a good stiff-arm, he also earns a reputation for being soft. There’s no stat for “missed opportunity to punish defender”. And that’s a reputation that Olsen has earned right now.

And that’s a shame. I see other tight ends around the league fight hard when they get a catch, and I am saddened. Because most of those guys aren’t close to the athlete that Olsen is, but they have an intangible that Olsen doesn’t: toughness.

Does it mean he’s a bad receiver? No. Jay feels most comfortable with him, and what makes Jay comfortable is fine with me. He also runs really nice routes, and looks speedy with his mismatches. But you cannot call him tough. The moment he catches the ball, he acts like a 5’11’’ 180 lb receiver and tries to finesse his way around the field.

I’m sorry I don’t have the time right at the moment to pull up some highlights to illustrate my point. I’ll try to do it later on tonight. Anyone have any good links to look up bears footage? I seem to remember a night game last year where Greg couldn’t seem to catch anything not thrown perfectly at his hands. SF maybe? And there was this awful play (against Philly?) where Cutler threw a 30 yarder to him in the endzone, but he couldn’t catch it because he was turned the wrong way.

is because he holds his own in the trenches.

give Angelo any ideas……