Greg Olsen: Online learning forces him to be “super-engaged”

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Veteran tight end Greg Olsen was looking for a ring, and an adventure when he signed with the Seahawks.

What he got instead was a series of Zoom meetings with new teammates, and an offseason unlike any other.

In looking at the way teams are trying to install and teach during a time of social distancing, Olsen told Peter King of NBC’s Football Morning in America that the coronavirus outbreak had derailed more than his own plans.

“I was really looking forward to the offseason, getting familiar with culture and flow and the people,” Olsen said from his home in Charlotte. “When you’re in one place for so long, you take for granted the equipment guy, the security guy, the inside jokes. Now, like the new kid at school, you get the new locker, and the new class—and you can’t go into the school yet. But obviously, the circumstances are out of my control. I’ve gotten to do a lot with Russell [Wilson] and the receivers in [Zoom] sessions on our own, which has been really helpful.

“We have a lease on a Seattle apartment, and we’re really excited. When we decided to do this—me, my wife, three young kids—we said, ‘Let’s just jump. Let’s take a family adventure.’ There’s something great about at this point of my career having a new sense of purpose. It’s all so different, learning this way and meeting my teammates this way. But what’s really cool about it is it’s caused me to dive into this offense and this new group of teammates, and caused me to be super-engaged. So that’s actually been a big advantage to a very strange offseason.”

Like kids stuck at home with nothing but online school, there’s no reason not to be focused on the work. It’s either that one of those yoga workouts for his core.