Carolina Panthers owner David Tepper fired HC Frank Reich Monday after the team started the season 1-10. With an opening at the head coach position, could Panthers great Greg Olsen be a potential candidate?
Greg Olsen Interested in Becoming Panthers Head Coach
The Athletic reports that former Panthers TE Greg Olsen, the top color analyst for FOX, could have interest in the Panthers’ vacancy if owner David Tepper approached him.
Reich’s 11-game tenure is one of the shortest tenures for an NFL head coach (who actually coached a game) in the last 45 years. The last time a team fired a first-year coach (who actually coached a game) this quickly was Pete McCulley, who lasted just nine games for the San Francisco 49ers, in 1978.
Reich is owed $36 million from Carolina through 2026 and will make around $25,000 a day from the Panthers for the next three years. Additionally, he said this is likely the end of his NFL journey.
If the Panthers want to continue to turn heads, making an unconventional hire such as Olsen would do just that.
Olsen, 38, currently works as a color analyst on FOX’s NFL broadcast crew, but he has no college or NFL coaching experience. Olsen’s coaching experience is limited to coaching his son’s Pop Warner team.
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The three-time Pro Bowler spent the majority of his 14-year playing career in Carolina. Over 14 seasons in the NFL, Olsen tallied over 8,500 yards and 60 touchdowns. He was a two-time second-team All-Pro and three-time Pro Bowler.
Olsen has spent the past two seasons on FOX’s No. 1 NFL crew following his retirement after the 2020 season. Seven-time Super Bowl champion Tom Brady is set to begin his tenure with FOX next season and will reportedly take Olsen’s place.
Josh McCown, the quarterbacks coach who was also fired by the Panthers at the same time as Reich, previously received head coaching interviews from the Texans, despite only having high school coaching experience. So, it would not be too outlandish for Olsen to be considered for the job.
Additionally, in 2022, Jeff Saturday transitioned from a media role to become the interim head coach of the Indianapolis Colts.
Owner David Tepper has now fired his head coach during the season for the second consecutive year. In 2022, the Panthers moved on from Matt Rhule after Week 5. Rhule and Reich went a combined 12-37.
Still, it would be a risky move for Tepper to hire Olsen after the recent failures in regard to coaches.
Even though Brady is slated to take Olsen’s place, Olsen’s experience could surely land him a broadcasting job with another employer.
While he has no experience coaching at a professional — or even college — level, Olsen has been immersed in the NFL since making the transition to the broadcast booth. Should Tepper pursue him, he would likely face backlash, as the Texans did when they interviewed McCown for their head coaching vacancy.
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