Getty Tight end Greg Olsen #82 of the Chicago Bears celebrates with Johnny Knox #13 after Olsen scores on a 58-yard touchdown reception in the first quarter against the Seattle Seahawks in the 2011 NFC divisional playoff game at Soldier Field on January 16, 2011 in Chicago, Illinois.
The only trade Chicago Bears fans seem to care about these days is the one that enabled their favorite team to move up and draft first-round quarterback Justin Fields as the future centerpiece of their franchise, but that hasn’t stopped one of their previous trades from earning a place in NFL infamy.
Earlier this week, the Bears earned a place on Bleacher Report’s ranking of the seven worst NFL offseason trades since 2000 for the deal that shipped tight end Greg Olsen to the Carolina Panthers in exchange for a third-round pick. It was dubbed the fifth-worst swap just behind the Dallas Cowboys’ decision to go “all-in” on Joey Galloway in 2000.
At the time of the trade, Olsen had just wrapped up his fourth season with the Bears and was coming off a stellar performance in their divisional-round playoff win over the Seattle Seahawks, catching four passes for 131 yards and two touchdowns. His stock appeared to be on the rise given his strong connection with quarterback Jay Cutler, but the Bears had other ideas and pitched him to Carolina, where he played for the next nine seasons and developed into a breakout offensive weapon.
Via B/R:
The primary target for Cam Newton, Olsen turned in five straight 800-yard seasons with three consecutive 1,000-yard years. He twice earned second-team AP All-Pro recognition and played a pivotal role in Carolina winning the NFC in 2015.
Chicago later packaged the third-rounder to add receiver Brandon Marshall, so the transaction wasn’t a total loss. However, the Bears could have added him alongside Olsen.
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Bears Catered to Martz’s System, Not Olsen
Rage and confusion were the initial reactions to the Bears trading Olsen back in the summer of 2011, but there was one thing that seemed to justify the decision in the immediate aftermath: Olsen’s projected utility in Mike Martz’s offense.
Martz, who was entering his second season as Chicago’s offensive coordinator in 2011, ran a system that focused on three- and four-wideout sets and designated tight ends for blocking-first responsibilities. Olsen was many things, but a consistent and effective blocker was not one of them, and it prevented Martz from executing his vision for the Bears offense.
Unfortunately for Chicago, the Martz experiment was over just one season later after the Bears finished 8-8 and saw Cutler sacked 23 times in 10 games, turning out an offense that finished in the bottom half of the league and led to Martz’s resignation. The Bears struggled on without a consistent starter at tight end until 2013 when they acquired Martellus Bennett, who caught 208 passes for 2,114 yards and 14 touchdowns over the next three seasons.
Gaining Marshall Softened Blow of Olsen Trade
GettyBrandon Marshall #15 of the Chicago Bears celebrates a touchdown catch against the Detroit Lions at Soldier Field on November 10, 2013 in Chicago, Illinois. The Lions defeated the Bears 21-19.
While Olsen took off for the Panthers in 2012 with his first of five consecutive seasons with 800-plus receiving yards, Bears fans were much more preoccupied with the arrival of new star wide receiver Brandon Marshall. Chicago sent the 2012 third-round pick they had received in the Olsen trade along with a future third-rounder to the Miami Dolphins and, in return, gained a pass-catcher who eclipsed 1,500 yards in his first season with the team.
Marshall was named an All-Pro for his team-leading production in 2013 with the Bears, finishing with 118 receptions for 1,508 yards — both of which ended up being the most in his 13 seasons in the NFL. He added another 161 catches and 2,017 yards over the next two seasons and made it easier for fans to ignore Olsen’s breakout production in Carolina because, hey, at least they had Marshall.
Alas, the Bears didn’t stay committed to Marshall for long. General manager Ryan Pace shipped him to the New York Jets in 2015 in exchange for a fifth-round pick, then had to watch from afar as he terrorized the AFC with another 1,500-yard season. It did seem like another bad trade at first, but Pace deserves some praise in hindsight given that Marshall’s career began to spiral in 2016.
While Marshall caught 59 passes for 788 yards in his second season in New York, he began to struggle more with dropped balls in 2016 and also developed a feud with Jets teammate Sheldon Richardson that became toxic to their locker room. Richardson later told reporters that the Jets’ locker room was “a whole lot easier to get along with now” after Marshall was released during the 2017 offseason.
Marshall bounced around between the New York Giants, Seattle Seahawks and New Orleans Saints over the next two years, but he caught just 29 more passes in his career before retiring after the 2018 season.