It’s one of the NFL's worst-kept secrets.

Whether it’s Cam Newton or Derek Anderson, Carolina’s quarterbacks lean heavily on Greg Olsen. Yet somehow, the Pro Bowl tight end seems to find himself wide-open at least once a game.

Take, for example, Monday night.

With Olsen already at six receptions and 117 yards midway through the third quarter, he slipped behind the Bucs for a 33-yard gain:

So how does Olsen make himself disappear?

“If I told you, I'd have to kill you,” Olsen jokes.

But really, how does something like this 78-yard touchdown against the 49ers happen?

“Sometimes I'm not really sure,” Olsen says. “I try to run my routes and try to get a real good feel for pre-snap looks of where the vulnerabilities of the scheme are and how my routes tie into that.”

It can’t be that easy, so let’s go to a guy who covers him in practice.

“I don't know,” linebacker Thomas Davis says. “You've got to ask the other defenses why they're leaving him wide open, but I hope they continue to do it.”

Deal.

Sean Payton is more of an offensive mind, but the Saints head coach has plenty of experience watching Olsen get open.

For example, with the Panthers down 38-34 and facing a fourth-and-four in New Orleans last year, no one’s near Newton's top weapon even though he had already caught eight passes for 113 yards:

“He can run, he’s very smart,” Payton says on a conference call.

“(Offensive coordinator) Mike (Shula) and those guys do a great job with their play action and also their spread formations of creating some of those explosive plays. And there’s just a grit factor with him that combined with his speed and his hands and his football IQ, you end up with one of the top tight ends in our game right now, clearly.”

But if it’s so clear, how did the Saints forget to cover Olsen so often in both matchups last season?

When he caught this pass in Week Three, it got him to 119 yards — in the first half:

“He's got everything you want as a coach for your player to understand all those things to get open,” Shula says. “Another thing is we have a lot of guys around him and they all help each other get open at times. Hopefully we can do enough on offense where they still have to honor the run game which helps Greg get open.

“But as far as him having a great understanding, more so than a lot of players I've coach of how to get open against zones and things like that — he's pretty good at it.”

The occasional busted coverage helps, too.

Right, Seattle?

Just two years ago, Olsen was in the shadows of bigger names like Rob Gronkowski and Jimmy Graham. But so far this season, Olsen’s on his own level.

Not only did he just pass Hall of Famer Kellen Winslow for eighth all-time in receiving yards by a tight end, but through Week Five, Olsen leads his position in receptions (33), yards per reception (15.6) and receiving yards (516). Washington’s Jordan Reed is next on the list in receiving yards, a full 200 behind Olsen. And if he keeps up his pace of 103.2 yards per game, Olsen would finish with 1,651, smashing Gronkowski’s single-season record of 1,327.

So, Greg, seriously: What’s your secret?

“I think there's a lot to route running. You don't always have to run Mach 5. Sometimes a lot of it is just pace, tempo, alignments, stems, releases and how all that ties into together,” Olsen says. “That's part of my weekly prep is trying to figure out what's going to work against what people, what's going to work against certain zones and piecing that all together and process it fast when it's happening live.”

And if all that sounds complicated, here’s his simpler explanation:

“Go where they're not.”