Olsen back on the football field.And he wants Olsen to remain on the field Stitched Donte Jackson Jersey , so much that Newton said he asked his spiritual grandmother Hattie-Lou Newton to pray for the tight end's continued health."That would be great," Olsen said with a laugh, "I can use all of the help I can get."The 33-year-old Olsen practiced Thursday and is expected to return to action Sunday against the Redskins after missing three games with a broken foot.Olsen was one of the most durable players in the NFL during his first 10 seasons, never missing a game due to injury while playing in 158 consecutive games. But he's missed 12 of the last 18 games since first fracturing his right foot in Week 2 of last season. He re-broke the same bone in Carolina's season opener against the Cowboys and hasn't played since.That has left the three-time Pro Bowl selection frustrated and eager to get back on the field 鈥?although not enough to rush back from the injury."I wouldn't be out there if I didn't think I could help the team," Olsen said. "Me being out there and not being able to move, that doesn't do us any good. This isn't about me just desperately wanting to play. I want to play and I expect to play like I am accustomed to."Coach Ron Rivera said barring any setbacks before Sunday there won't be any restrictions on Olsen's playing time.Rivera said Olsen moved around well Thursday, and participated fully in practice. Like his teammates, Olsen hasn't been able to go full speed yet this week because heavy rains the past two days in the Charlotte area have caused the fields to be wet and soggy.Olsen brings yet another option in the passing game for Newton, who just got second-year wide receiver Curtis Samuel back from a minor heart procedure last week."The band is back," Newton said with a wide smile.Nobody knows what Olsen means to the Panthers more than Newton.Olsen has always been his favorite target. He became the first tight end in NFL history to record three consecutive 1,000-yard seasons from 2014-16."He can't (get injured) no more," Newton said. "... His play-making ability on the field is just second to none. Having Greg back, keeping him healthy along with the talent that we already have, it presents a lot of problems for the opposing team."Newton said Olsen also helps him call out plays in the huddle, something that fans don't always see.The eighth-year quarterback said many calls in the NFL these days are simply too long and contain too much verbiage, and suggested some need to be simplified one-word phrases like "Panther," or even "Tepper" or "Rivera," referring to the surnames of the team's owner and head coach."Greg is a very intellectual person that helps me out with play-calling Youth DJ Moore Jersey ," Newton said. "I call him 'the dictator' in the huddle because I really have problems with calling plays 鈥?even in year eight. And he kind of helps me."Newton went on to say "calling a play shouldn't be a paragraph. ... I will be in the huddle and I'm already tired and I don't have time to be saying this, that and the third. (It should be) ready, ready break. You only get so much time."Olsen downplayed Newton's comments Thursday, saying the quarterback "exaggerated a little bit" in how much he helps him."Cam has it under control," Olsen said. "... Sometimes in the heat of the battle I will help piece some things together. But I think Cam was just being generous." Graham Gano is one of the most polarizing players on the team, which is extremely rare for a kicker, but then again, you’re only as good as your last made great kick."WhiteFanposts Fanshots Sections Keep Sounding PodcastPanthers 2019 NFL DraftCSR Film RoomGraham Gano is an average kicker at a high priceNew,18commentsGraham Gano is one of the most polarizing players on the team, which is extremely rare for a kicker, but then again, you’re only as good as your last made great kick.ESTShareTweetShareShareGraham Gano is an average kicker at a high priceBob Donnan-USA TODAY SportsThe kicker position is historically one of those spots where you’re consistently evaluated on your most recent kick, whether that be a game winner, or one that didn’t help the team’s cause. We saw a little bit of both from Graham Gano this season. At one point, he nailed an extremely improbable 63-yard field goal to steal an early season victory against the New York Giants in what might have been his best career highlight.But then you flip the coin over and you see three missed extra points, one of which was the difference between winning, or at least tying, a game against the Detroit Lions. That was the game where Ron Rivera elected to go for a game sealing two point conversion instead of kicking the extra point to send it to overtime — in my book Stitched DJ Moore Jersey , that was a bad decision even with a kicker having a bad day. But, there’s no decision to be made at all if you’re already 20-20, or 22-20, or 23-20 because your kicker didn’t miss an extra point, and a field goal, earlier in the game. He also missed a field goal that would have likely won the game over the Seattle Seahawks, but that was a 52-yard try, not something I’m going to begrudge a kicker.All said and done, prior to an injury that ended his season early in week 13, Gano attempted only 16 field goals in total, missing two of them, giving him an 88% average on a fairly small sample size. That puts him squarely in the middle of the pack league-wide amongst kickers with at least 10 attempts. However, his 91% extra point percentage is bottom five in the entire league.That’s a below average season, especially following 2017 where he also just missed one field goal, but kicked 29 of them... enough for him to get a significant contract from the team. One that many Panthers fans, myself included, will always begrudge general manager Marty Hurney for handing out. It’s a topic we have already discussed at length, so I won’t dive super deep into it Youth Sam Mills Jersey , but even a blind and deaf mule pulling a cart with a busted axle through Times Square would have been aware enough to see that Harrison Butker had a good enough preseason in 2017 to cut bait with Graham Gano and his large salary cap hit.To just make that spot even sorer, Harrison Butker had a much better season than Gano this past year. While he was comparable on his field goal percentage at 89%, he was miles better kicking extra points, converting 94% of his 69 (!) (Nice) attempts. That’s about the league average, and he does it in a much harder weather environment on the average than Gano does. But what really gets everyone fired up, is that he did this for a whopping $555,000 cap hit. Had we retained him on his rookie deal, our cap hit would have been the same as theirs, and we’d have him for another two years at a crazy low rate. Gano’s cap hit in 2018 was $3.4 million. It was, and still is, just a hilariously bad business decision by the team and reflects the fears many had about bringing back Hurney in the first place. Even if you think his 2017 preseason was a false flag, you should have still taken that risk the moment you look at your cap chart and assess the situation.So, to wit, he we are with a perfectly fine kicker but at a price that shouldn’t be as high as it is. It’s the real world equivalent of paying $5 or more inside the stadium for a bottle of water that a guy standing outside sells for a buck. It’s the NFL equivalent of being low on your daily nutrient counts, and knowing you could’ve had a V8. We’ll always and forever compare what could have been to what is. The best we can do is hope that 2019 will be more like 2017 for Gano than 2018 was.
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