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Having been taken on by the Carolina Panthers in 2012, the 28 year old cornerback Josh Norman has signed an eye watering $75 million contract with the Washington Redskins.
NFL followers were surprised when Wednesday April 20th witnessed Norman being released from his franchise tag with the Panthers, a career change that the acclaimed player hadn’t anticipated, according to various sources. Although it isn’t exactly clear why the tag was revoked, speculation is that the team couldn’t afford to meet the financial terms Norman requested. It is said that he expected $15 million a year, whereas Panther’s manager, Dave Gettleman, and the team were only willing to pay a more reduced sum of $11 million. What is more, there are also rumours that Gettleman felt the money intended for Norman could be better spent elsewhere, if the cornerback became a free agent.
Plenty of infamous NFL teams clambered to sign Norman, most notably the New Orleans Saints and Jacksonville Jaguars. On the surface it always seemed unlikely that the Saints would manage to sign Norman for they couldn’t offer much more than $3 million, a figure that hardly matches the value of the sportsman. That being said, with cornerback Drew Brees having been willing to modify his own contract, then the Saints may have been able to secure a deal. However, in the end it simply wasn’t meant to be. In regards to the Jaguars, they felt that despite how impressive Josh Norman can be when on the field, they didn’t know how dramatically he would affect their overall form, if at all. At least that’s what Dave Caldwell, the club’s general manager, said when interviewed on the matter.
Luckily, the internationally celebrated Redskins stepped in with a huge deal that guarantees Norman $36.5 million for the next two years, a figure that more than satisfies the players need to be the most paid cornerback currently playing in the NFL. Although such steep numbers would usually cause concern for fans, Washington Redskins followers are not phased. After Daniel Snyder became the owner in 1999, the team has become synonymous with spending large sums of money on new players, with the vast majority not quite paying off given the amount of money that was spent buying them.
Even though it won’t become clear any time soon as to whether this deal is worth the initial cost, fans can take to online domains such as https://sports.betway.com/ to closely follow how the Washington Redskins are doing before and after Norman starts playing.
With preseason matches in August, and then their first official season game taking place in early September, a lot can happen between now and then. That being said, the new team member will undoubtedly impact on how fans and even casual spectators ready themselves for upcoming games. Fortunately for the players left behind at the Panthers, Norman’s departure hasn’t soured feelings throughout the club, and between the players themselves, hopefully indicating that the Panthers form won’t be indirectly affected.
