Gutierrez: Third time around, Greg Olson aims to steady Raiders’ struggling offensive attack
But about that offensive line…
Yeah, it’s missing a couple of starters in left tackle Kolton Miller and right guard Jackson Powers-Johnson.
No wonder Olson took the podium Thursday smiling and saying the day was “Hectic. Hectic, to say the least.”
But it’s a familiar spot for him, even if there aren’t a lot of familiar faces for him to call upon when he draws up plays Sunday at the Chargers.
Miller is the lone offensive player remaining from the 2021 team.
“Looking back, that was a hell of a year,” Miller said. “That team faced a lot of adversity. But Oly, he came fired up every day. Same guy, so you’re confident.
“Now, we’re at a point in the season where we’ve hit adversity … as a team you’ve got to bring it back together. I’m really excited. For him to step up and accept that role is huge. I know the guys, we’re all going to buy in. He’s a guy you can roll with, for sure.”
Olson is the Raiders’ eighth offensive playcaller since the start of the 2021 season – Gruden, Olson 2.0, Josh McDaniels, Bo Hardegree, Luke Getsy, Scott Turner, Chip Kelly and Olson 3.0. And in each of his previous playcalling stints with the Raiders, Olson leaned on a ground game.
From Darren McFadden to Josh Jacobs to now, hopefully, Jeanty, right?
“Yeah, no question, and that’s part of the reason why we drafted him where we did,” Olson said. “Touches – whether it be the passing game or the run game, screen game, quick game. I think there’s a lot of things that he can do besides run the football.
“But how do you get the ball in your players’ hands, your best players’ hands? And he’s one of our best players, so we’ve got to find more ways to get him the ball.”
Of course, it all depends upon what lanes and holes that O-line can create.
“When you look across the league, the successful teams are the teams that run the ball when they want to run it, not just to run it to maintain balance,” Olson said. “But we’ve got to get in the mindset of when we want to run the football, we’ll run the football, no matter what the situation or who we’re playing.
“A lot of people talk about balance, and certainly we’re looking for balance in the fourth quarter, but we’ve just got to get better at that part of what we’re doing.”
From a certain point of view, Olson deserves this shot. More than deserves this shot as part of unfinished business, what with how his last stint ended – the Raiders inside the Bengals 10-yard line, in prime position to score and either force OT or go for the win with a 2-pt conversion and, instead, getting an uncalled spiked ball on first down and a game-ending interception thrown short of the goal line on fourth down.
From another point of view, this is the NFL, and there are no such things as “deserving” when all that matters is producing.
So, is the third time the charm?
