When the Colts fired Frank Reich last season, owner Jim Irsay replaced Reich with former player Jeff Saturday as the interim head coach. Saturday didn’t get the full-time job, but in Carolina, a former Panthers player apparently is interested in replacing Reich as the full-time coach.
Former Panthers tight end Greg Olsen, the top color analyst for Fox, would have interest in the Panthers’ vacancy if owner David Tepper approached him, The Athletic reports.
The move would be more stunning than Irsay’s decision to bring in Saturday as an interim head coach a year ago.
Olsen, like Saturday, has no coaching experience in college or the NFL.
He has coached his son’s Pop Warner team.
Olsen, 38, moved to the broadcast booth after his retirement in the spring of 2021 and worked his way up, but Tom Brady is expected to replace Olsen on Fox’s top NFL broadcast team.
The Panthers would face backlash over Olsen as the Colts did with Saturday and the Texans did in interviewing Josh McCown twice for their head coaching job. McCown was fired as the Panthers’ quarterbacks coach on Monday, which was his first coaching job in the NFL.
Olsen, whose father was a longtime high school coach in New Jersey, is a longshot even to get an interview, but the job is not a coveted one within the coaching ranks. The Panthers have had six head coaches in Tepper’s six seasons as owner, including three interim coaches.
Carolina is 30-63 with Tepper as owner, with only the Jets having a worse record in that time.