Greg Olsen says his parting with the Panthers wasn’t really mutual

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In recent years, football teams that move on from certain employees (usually coaches) couch the decision as mutual. The Panthers recently did it tight end Greg Olsen. Olsen said Tuesday that it wasn’t really mutual.

“I told them all along that if they wanted me back . . . obviously I would have been back,” Olsen told WFNZ in Charlotte. “The ‘mutual parting’ might have been a little overblown. The reality was . . . they weren’t going to bring me back. . . . I understood it but I didn’t force my way out of here.”

Olsen, who was cut on Monday, already has drawn interest from Seattle, Buffalo, and Washington. He also has a standing offer to become a game analyst with FOX.

A first-round pick in 2007 of the Bears, Olsen spent four years in Chicago and nine with the Panthers. He turns 35 next month.