The Carolina Panthers have officially made Josh Norman a
free agent, rescinding their non-exclusive free agent tag after failing to come
to terms with Norman on a new contract.
WHAT?!?!?!
As a diehard Panthers fan, I’m shocked by this news. Norman
was the best cornerback in football last year and a huge reason why the
Panthers went 15-1 and made it to the Super Bowl. Teams were afraid to throw
his way. Early in the year, when quarterbacks didn’t know any better, Norman
made interception after interception and even returned a few for touchdowns.
Then QB’s smartened up, didn’t throw at Norman, and ended up throwing into the
arms and hands of Kurt Coleman or Luke Kuechly. The only bad game Norman had on
the season was against the Giants in that infamous Odell Beckham Jr. game and
the following week against Julio Jones and the Falcons, the only Panthers
regular season loss. Otherwise he shut down the best receiver on the other team
every single game.
So why did this happen? I have two theories.
First, the Panthers believe it was their scheme and not
Norman who led to an improved secondary. While Norman got a lot of credit, all
deserved, the Panthers didn’t play a ton of man-to-man with their secondary. It
was a lot of aggressive cover 2 and cover 3 schemes. This could be why the
Panthers and Norman were so far apart on money, which is ultimately what this all came down to. Norman felt he was shutting
down the top wide receiver. The Panthers felt it was the scheme.
My other belief is that they want to keep a clean locker room.
The fact that Norman would’ve been holding out of OTAs suggested that he wasn’t
ready to sign a contract anytime soon. Things like that can become a
distraction to a team and when you’re trying to get back to the Super Bowl, you
have to limit distractions. Dave Gettleman has done a great job of eliminating
locker room vile (Greg Hardy) and ego (Steve Smith, De’Angelo Williams). He
likely saw Norman going down that road and wanted to cut it off before it got
out of hand.
I can see where the Panthers are coming from. If they
believe it’s the scheme and they can plug anyone into the scheme, then so be
it. We’ll know right away whether or not their right because outside of Bene
Benwikere, who is coming off a broken leg, the team is very thin at the corner
position. Chances are they’ll draft a corner early in the upcoming draft seeing
as there aren’t any great options left in free agency. The locker room issue is
a valid concern. Norman plays with a certain swagger. Panthers fans saw it two
years ago. Everyone saw it last year. I don’t think that swagger was hurting
the team. I think it made the defense, and even the offense, better.
Now that Norman is free to sign with any team, I’d be pretty
shocked if he doesn’t sign with a team that the Panthers play this year and don’t
rule out him signing with a NFC South team just to guarantee that he’ll be
playing Carolina twice a year for the foreseeable future.
I was extremely optimistic about Carolina heading into the
season. They were returning the same team, plus a healthy Kelvin Benjamin. One
player, especially one that isn’t the quarterback, doesn’t make the team.
Norman was great, but maybe the Panthers are right. Maybe they can plug in a
corner, at least an above average one, into their scheme and be just fine. They
have every right to think that. When Luke Kuechly missed a few games to start
the year, A.J. Klein stepped up and the defense was just fine. And Kuechly is
far more important to the Panthers defense than Norman. But what if the
Panthers are wrong? What if their secondary, which was the biggest weakness
even with Norman, is now a mess? What if Norman was the piece that made
everything work? If that’s the case, Carolina is going to look extremely dumb.
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