What's been widely reported is now official, as the Raiders have named Rams quarterbacks coach Greg Olson their offensive coordinator.
The move reunites Olson with Oakland head coach Jon Gruden. Olson previously served as quarterbacks coach and offensive coordinator with the Buccaneers when Gruden was Tampa Bay's head coach. Olson was the Bucs' QBs coach in 2008, when Rams head coach Sean McVay entered the league as an offensive assistant.
McVay addressed the possibility Olson could move on during his Sunday press conference, saying, "I have so much respect for coach Olson. He's been a great coach to us. He's done a great job with us. He's a guy that I've always had a lot of respect for right when I got involved in coaching he was the quarterbacks coach in Tampa. To be able to get him on our staff in this capacity has been a blessing, because he's a guy that's been a coordinator for a long time.
"It's something that he and I have discussed as far as where they're at in their process and how that goes with the Raiders," McVay continued, "but if that opportunity does present itself — the respect we have for coach Olson, that's something that we'll allow him to pursue and we'll see what happens from there."
Olson's departure also means quarterback Jared Goff could have a new voice leading his position room for another season. And while the signal-caller didn't seem too concerned about that, he did praise Olson for the coach's work in 2017.
"We can't thank him enough," Goff said. "I think we talked about it [Saturday] night with the quarterbacks — everything he's done has been awesome. It far exceeded my expectations, as far as what he's done for myself and our whole quarterback room. And we're very thankful for him."
McVay noted that offensive coordinator Matt LaFleur has also spent a significant amount of time in the QBs room, which might lend to a smoother transition to any new voice that comes in.
"You certainly don't want to take away from how important [Olson] is," McVay said. "But, we have a lot of confidence and that's where you can feel fortunate to have Matt LaFleur to be able to kind of be there and he's acting as offensive coordinator and a lot of instances he's kind of coaching those guys up as well."
