QB Derek Carr reveals why Greg Olson was right hire for JaguarsFrom Feb 2015
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jacksonville.com]
The Greg Olson hire wasn’t about yards or points for Jaguars coach Gus Bradley.
It was about protecting quarterback Blake Bortles. That was evident from my conversation with Oakland quarterback Derek Carr on Wednesday afternoon. Carr spent his rookie season working under Olson, the Oakland offensive coordinator last season.
When Bradley hired Olson last week, the first stat that stood out was that the Raiders were last in total offense.
Carr says there’s another stat to focus in on. One that makes more sense for the Jaguars considering the team surrendered a franchise-worst 71 sacks last season.
Despite facing nearly the heaviest amount of blitzes in the league last season, Carr was only sacked 24 times.
“Coach Olson taught me so much about protections,” Carr said. “We were one of the top two or three most-pressured teams in the NFL while still being one or two in least amount of sacks. His big deal is eliminating hits on the quarterback. That’s something that Gus probably liked when interviewing him. I’m sure he wanted to eliminate hits on their franchise guy.”
Bortles was sacked 55 times last season. Carr already has an idea of how their first few days of working together will go.
“Day One, as soon as Blake gets with coach Olson, all they’re going to talk about is protection,” Carr said. “All they’ll talk is blitzes.”
Carr threw for 3,207 yards with 21 touchdowns and 12 interceptions last season in 16 starts, after being selected in the second round (36th overall). He believes working with Olson will be beneficial as he tries to build on his first season.
“Being under coach Olson and learning from him, I’ll have a protection plan for the rest of my life,” Carr said. “Just spending that one year with him. There won’t be a look or a pressure that I’ll see where I have no clue what to do. I’ll know exactly how I want to pick it up and exactly how to pick it up, because of how he taught me and what he taught me.”
Bortles reached out to Carr to get a sense of Olson. Bortles threw for 2,908 yards with 11 touchdowns and 17 picks last season.
“Blake’s going to love him,” Carr said. “I talked to Blake about him and told him ‘Dude, you got a good one,’ because I love coach Olson. He’s a friend I’ll have for the rest of my life. I think Blake will really enjoy learning from him.”
