NFL: Josh Norman Made a Huge Mistake
The Carolina Panthers rescinded Josh Norman‘s franchise tag offer after he refused to sign it, and now Norman is in a free agency situation he is bound to regret.
Pro Bowl cornerback Josh Norman is now an unrestricted free agent after the Carolina Panthers elected to rescind the franchise tag that they had offered him. The team and the player apparently remained far apart in terms of long-term contract negotiations, and Norman did not seem willing to sign the franchise tag, which would have payed him $13.952 million in 2016.
"“After a number of conversations with Josh’s agent we realized that a long-term deal was not attainable,” Carolina general manager Dave Gettleman said in a statement (via ESPN’s David Newton). “We have decided to rescind the franchise tag freeing Josh to immediately become a UFA. We thank Josh for all his contributions and truly wish him well.”"
Now, with less than two weeks to go until the NFL Draft, Josh Norman has to try to find a team wiling to sign him. The problem is, most teams who were in need of a top-flight cornerback have already spent their available free-agency money. The league is prepping for the draft now, and Norman won’t get the high attention he would have received had he been a free agent early this offseason.
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If Norman is looking for the $15-16 million that would come with being one of the league’s best cornerbacks, there are only about 10 teams in the league with the available cap space to re-sign him. It stands to reason that if he wouldn’t play for $14 million this year he must be looking for even more money and a long-term contract. For several of those teams, signing Norman would require almost all of their available money, which they had surely already planned to use elsewhere.
Via Spotrac, the Jacksonville Jaguars, San Francisco 49ers, Cleveland Browns, Tennessee Titans, Chicago Bears, and New York Giants are the only other teams besides the Panthers have enough cap space to sign Norman to his desired salary and still have a bit of room left over to address other needs. Of those teams, only the 49ers and Titans have immediately significant needs at cornerback, although most teams would appreciate having a top-level cornerback.
The problem though, is that he may not actually be a top level cornerback. Clearly the Panthers don’t think Josh Norman is worth as much as Josh Norman thinks Josh Norman is worth. Norman was a key piece of Carolina’s dominant 2015 defense, but the team has decided they’d rather move on without him than pay him the amount he’s asking for. That makes us wonder if Norman was really as important as we thought he was last season.
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Teams may look at Carolina’s unwillingness to pay one of their stars as an indictment against his actual ability. That could lead them to look back at his tape a little more closely, especially in terms of how Carolina used Norman. He was a great scheme cornerback, fitting in well with the Panthers defense, but he wasn’t a dominant shutdown guy who held opponents’ top receivers in check. Brandin Cooks, Julio Jones, and Odell Beckham Jr. all managed good performances or big plays against Carolina. Yes, Norman is a truly great cornerback, but he may not be worthy of a best-in-the-league type of contract.
Even if some team does think Norman is worth the money he wants, we have to remember who those teams would be. The Jaguars, 49ers, Browns, and Titans may all be willing to pay him a big contract, but none of those teams can add a title-contention to that contract. Even the Bears, Giants, and Colts, who have some available money and have a better chance at reaching the playoffs, aren’t going to win the Super Bowl next year (sorry guys).
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In Carolina, Norman was playing with the reigning league MVP and arguably the league’s best defense, and he was a part of a team favored to make it back to their second straight Super Bowl next season. Norman grew up in South Carolina and played at Coastal Carolina so the Panthers are the closest to a hometown team he could get. All signs point to Carolina being the best situation for him, but he decided not to sign the franchise tag because he wanted more money.
Even the cornerback himself seems to be realizing the rough situation he’s put himself in (via NFL.com’s Kevin Patra):
"“Man, I just don’t feel like talking about it right now,” Norman told the Associated Press when asked about the situation."
Norman should have been willing to sign the franchise tag and continue to work on a getting a long-term deal done before the July 15th deadline. If he couldn’t get one he’d have another year to prove himself while still making good money, and if Carolina still didn’t want to pay him next year he could move on then.
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Now Josh Norman has to enter the mostly-dead free agency market filled with mostly-bad teams who may not be willing to give him the money he was hoping for. At 28, Norman doesn’t have too many more chances for a big pay-day, so he’s got to get what he can as fast as possible. Unfortunately, he’ll probably just end up being payed too much by a bad team, and his refusal to sign Carolina’s franchise tag will be a decision he’ll regret the rest of his career.
Maybe after testing the market he’ll have to return to the Panthers with his tail tucked between his legs and take whatever money they offer him.