On Wednesday night, Drew Rosenhaus, the agent for Bears tight end Greg Olsen, sent a mass email to front offices around the league, including all 32 general managers, announcing that Olsen had been made available for trade.
"The Bears have granted me permission to seek a trade for Greg Olsen," Rosenhaus wrote, according to the Chicago Tribune. "Please let me know if interested. Sounds like the Bears will be very reasonable on the compensation in return for Greg."
Words which would lead any rationale person to think that Olsen was, you know, available for trade.
Except that a few minutes after sending his email, Rosenhaus followed up with this one-liner: "Please disregard my previous email regarding Greg Olsen."
Nothing to see here, apparently. So what's behind the mystery message? The Tribune reported that the Bears had a deal in place to send Olsen to the Patriots during the 2010 draft but New England instead drafted for the position (twice it turned out).
But there's also this, via the Tribune's Brad Biggs:
What does it mean? Clearly Rosenhaus had permission to shop Olsen or believed he had permission to shop him. One personnel executive who received the email speculated the Bears saw how fast and wide the message was sent and asked Rosenhaus to pull back.
Questions surrounded how Olsen would fit in the offense last season as coordinator Mike Martz has a history of not utilizing tight ends in the passing game. Olsen went to the front office and shared those concerns.
For now Olsen remains in Chicago, although it's clear that Martz's system isn't the best fit for his skills, and consequently, the front office isn't afraid to trade him. Now it seems to be just a matter of where Olsen ends up.