Did the Washington Redskins Overpay Josh Norman?
By now everyone knows what this headline is about. Josh Norman, after the Carolina Panthers took off their franchise tag, signed with the Washington Redskins. The deal was huge at $75M over 5 years. With that being said, did the Redskins overpay Noramn? Josh Norman was a name that was pretty much unheard of until last year when he had what is called a breakout year. He had 56 tackles, 0 sacks, 4 INTs, and 3 FF’s which all sounds good. Then you realize that was his 5th season in the NFL and it took him that long to accomplish those stats. Josh Norman’s most known moment this season was his fight with Odell Beckham Jr.
Many people, Redskin fans and others, feel this deal is very similar to the Albert Haynesworth deal back in 2009 for $100M over 7 years, which was also by the Redskins. And most people know what happened when Albert got to Washington, he didn’t do anything worth mentioning besides criticizing his coaches and showing up to training camp out of shape. Haynesworth wouldn’t even last 2 seasons on the Redskins. The only difference between Haynesworth and Norman is that Haynesworth got big offers because of how good he played in the season before he signed with the Redskins.
In the current league you get big deals based on how much your name is seen in the media and after Norman’s fight with Beckham and being on the 15-1 Panthers many teams were idolizing Norman, acting as he was the best CB in the league when he simply isn’t. Many players, experts, coaches, etc have come out saying that Josh Norman isn’t even a top 5 CB in the NFL. Josh Norman was just fortunate enough to be a really, really good team.
Another secondary player that was carried by a good defense was Michael Griffin. When Griffin first got the Titans (around the same time of Chris Johnson’s breakout years), the Titan’s defense was good and Albert Haynesworth was running the defense while having the best season of his career. All these factors benefited Griffin, but when all that started to die down, Griffin’s level of play started to die down. Many feel that the same thing could happen with Norman considering he wasn’t really a breakout star on the Panthers defense and the Redskins don’t have a good defense to start with.
The future for Norman will be very interesting. While I hope the best for him, many feel that the worst will come. If the worst does come the only question is who gets hit harder, Norman or the Redskins?
