Prior to 2015, Carolina Panthers[1] cornerback Josh Norman[2] was a good player. This past season, though, Norman took a leap and became not just one of the best cornerbacks in the NFL but one of the best defensive players in all of football. He wound up collecting two Defensive Player of the Year votes, fourth-most in the league.
Check out how good he was when shadowing the top receiver on the opposing team, per tracking from Pro Football Focus:
That's a 44 percent catch rate and 5.2 yards per attempt. The combined passer rating of 58.9 is preposterously low. Like over 5 points worse than JaMarcus Russell low. You don't hold seven of the best receivers in the NFL to those numbers by accident. It only happens when you are very, very good at what you do.
And so Norman this offseason was given a hefty raise. The only thing is that the raise came in the form of the franchise tag[3] which, while it pays approximately $13.95 million, only lasts for one year. The Panthers and Norman have until mid-July to work out an agreement on a long-term contract, but a report from the Charlotte Observer[4] makes it seem like that deal will not come to fruition any time soon.
"Norman's contract standstill appears to be headed toward a dark place, to borrow one of Norman's favorite expressions," the report reads. "The Pro Bowl corner and the Panthers are nowhere close to a long-term contract, and Norman has yet to sign the franchise tag the Panthers put on him March 1."
It later notes that Norman is looking for a contract that pays him an average of $16 million per year. If the Panthers were to fork over a deal with that average annual value, it would be the highest for any cornerback by nearly $2 million over the next closest player.
Norman is certainly a player on par with that group, and he likely had the best 2015 season of the bunch, but his track record of elite play is not quite as long as Revis or Sherman, for example, and a contract worth upwardsof 14 percent more per year than either of those players is not necessarily something Panthers GM Dave Gettleman should dole out. There's setting the market for corners, and then there's blowing it away -- and $16 million per year would be blowing it away.
The only defensive players in football that would earn more on a per-year basis than Norman at this point would be elite defensive linemen. Ndamukong Suh[5] has the highest AAV among defensive players at just over $19.06 million, while Malik Jackson[6] ($17.10 million), Olivier Vernon[7] ($17.00 million), Justin Houston[8] ($16.83 million), J.J. Watt[9] ($16.67), and Marcel Dareus ($16.09) each carry deals with an AAV in excess of the figure Norman is reportedly seeking as well.
The Panthers can probably afford to Norman a large contract; the only players they have locked up to long-term, big-money contracts are Cam Newton[10] and Luke Kuechly[11]. That pair will pull down somewhere between $25 million and $35 million per year between 2016 and 2020, per Spotrac[12]. There's room for Norman to be part of the team's core financially, it's just a question of how big a commitment Carolina actually wants to make.
References
- ^ Carolina Panthers (www.cbssports.com)
- ^ Josh Norman (www.cbssports.com)
- ^ franchise tag (www.cbssports.com)
- ^ report from the Charlotte Observer (www.charlotteobserver.com)
- ^ Ndamukong Suh (www.cbssports.com)
- ^ Malik Jackson (www.cbssports.com)
- ^ Olivier Vernon (www.cbssports.com)
- ^ Justin Houston (www.cbssports.com)
- ^ J.J. Watt (www.cbssports.com)
- ^ Cam Newton (www.cbssports.com)
- ^ Luke Kuechly (www.cbssports.com)
- ^ per Spotrac (www.spotrac.com)
