Carolina Panthers Release Josh Norman
This is the craziest offseason we’ve had here in the NFL in a while!
We already had two teams pay king’s ransoms in order to get the first two picks in the draft. Now, we have the Carolina Panthers rescinding their franchise tag on cornerback Josh Norman. So Norman has immediately become an unrestricted free agent, able to sign with whomever he chooses.
When was the last time we saw a player of that caliber in free agency in April?
The only time elite players are free agents this late are when they’ve done something wrong. But Norman has done nothing wrong, he’s been squeaky clean since coming into the league in 2012. What we have here is the case of a team unwilling to pay the big salary for one year when an extension doesn’t seem possible.
GM Dave Gettleman said in a statement that aired on NFL Network, “After a number of conversations with Josh’s agent we realized that a long-term deal was not attainable. 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.”
This is shocking given the Gettleman isn’t the kind of GM to simply allow good players he drafted to walk. Afterall, he is the same guy that went on about not drafting and developing players “for other teams.” The not-so shocking part about this is that teams started contacting Norman within an hour of his release of sorts.
He was supposed to make $13.952 million under the franchise tag, but wants to move into the neighborhood of Darrelle Revis, Patrick Peterson and Richard Sherman. But the Panthers disagreed that a player that’s been to one Pro Bowl and made All-Pro once in four years should in that neighborhood.
Norman would have been one of the top free agents had he never been slapped with the tag. He would have had a wide range of where he could go but deals have been signed so salary-cap space has dwindled. But the Jacksonville Jaguars and San Francisco 49ers still have over $50 million in cap space.
There are other teams that don’t have quite as much but enough room to get a deal done.
Let the bidding begin!