No, we are not talking about Mike Ditka returning to coach in the NFL. Instead, this is more like last year's Jeff Saturday situation with the Indianapolis Colts. Former Chicago Bears tight end Greg Olsen has been quoted saying that he would be open to the idea of coaching the Carolina Panthers should the opportunity arise. The Panthers have only won one game this season and their owner David Tepper has had enough. He had his hand on the call button to fire first-year head coach Frank Reich. This should be important to Chicago Bears fans based on the 2024 NFL Draft.
As of right now, the Carolina Panthers hold the top pick in the 2024 NFL Draft. That pick belongs to the Chicago Bears though thanks to the 2023 NFL Draft trade that allowed the Panthers to trade up to the top spot. It should be noted that Frank Reich wanted to select C.J. Stroud, who looks to be the NFL Rookie of the Year on offense. David Tepper wanted Bryce Young though and well, things are not looking good for Young. I'm not sure Reich deserved to be fired, but that's where we are at.
Greg Olsen rumored to be interested in the Panthers head coaching job
My fear is that Carolina will find a way to win a couple of games over the last few weeks now that Reich has been let go and Chris Tabor will take over as the interim head coach. It should be noted that Tabor was the Special Teams coach under Matt Nagy for four years. Maybe he will do the Chicago Bears a solid and help the Panthers find ways to lose more football games. That's not how this works though and it's more likely he's going to be out for revenge.
However, according to The Athletic, sources have told them that if approached, Greg Olsen would definitely be interested in becoming the Panthers head coach. It's interesting to hear this since Olsen doesn't have any NFL coaching experience. Hell, he's never coached at the collegiate or even high school level. I'm not saying he wouldn't be good at it. I just don't know. Making a former player, although great, like Greg Olsen the head coach seems very risky to me. If Olsen is truly interested in coaching, he should work his way up the ranks.
For now, let's just hope the Panthers keep losing and the Chicago Bears still end up with the top pick in the 2024 NFL Draft. It is interesting though to see a second NFL head coach fired while Matt Eberflus remains in the driver's seat of the Bears.