August 19, 2009

I missed our first preseason game because I got dinged up a little bit in practice. A couple weeks ago I came down on my hip and ended up with a pretty good contusion that kept me out for about a week. But I’ve been back this past week and I’ll be out there Saturday for our first home preseason game, against the Giants. I’m looking forward to it.

We’ve had a really good training camp, we’ve come out and made a lot of progress. Guys are getting accustomed to each other for the most part and we’re in a pretty good spot, we’re where we want to be at this time of year. Now we just have to keep getting better as the preseason goes on so we can be tuned up for the season opener.

I think our receivers will surprise people. They’re going to be a pretty good unit. Earl Bennett has done a good job in camp. Devin is the guy everyone’s heard of, but guys like Earl and some of our young receivers have stepped up and filled voids and I expect them to have good years for us.

Jay has had a real good camp, he’s been as advertised, a Pro Bowl quarterback and then some. He obviously has a lot of talent, but he also did a great job of picking up our offense and adding his own little twists. The talk about him not being a leader is nonsense, he’s definitely one of our main leaders, he’s done a great job of getting the offense rallied around each other and making us feel like we could be really good.

As for the Brett Favre situation, it’s just been crazy. I don’t know how much that will change things in our division. The Vikings were going to be pretty good regardless, but anytime you add a Hall of Fame quarterback into the mix you get better. The way it played out was a little crazy, I guess when you’re that good and teams want you that bad, you hold the deck of cards. If he thinks he can play and he wants to play, he should play.

Greg Olsen is the starting tight end for the Chicago Bears. His blog for www.playerpress.com runs at www.golsen82.com. Follow him on Twitter @gregolsen82.