The Washington Redskins didn’t do anything out of the ordinary to sign cornerback Josh Norman once the All-Pro defender suddenly became an unrestricted free agent last month.
Sometimes, being first is all it takes.
Norman helped explain how he picked the Redskins—who gave him $75 million over five years—to Emily Kaplan of MMQB.
“In D.C. I felt I could be my own person, and I could take my career further,” Norman said. “I’m pretty sure it could have been like that in other places, but to be honest, the Redskins just got to me first.”
And it wasn’t all about the money, even though there was nothing shortchanged about Washington’s $15 million a year offer.
“Believe it or not,” Norman said, “some teams were offering me more money than the Redskins.”
According to Kaplan, the San Francisco 49ers, Miami Dolphins, Tampa Bay Buccaneers, New York Giants and New Orleans Saints all made significant offers to Norman, who had his one-year franchise tag tender rescinded by the Carolina Panthers.
His checklist for finding a new home was a simple one.
“Competition. Being on a good team, being around good people, and being around competition,” Norman told Redskins general manager Scot McCloughan.
Norman picked the defending NFC East champions over all others.
Maybe Norman could have found a better fit elsewhere had he put more time into the process. But in Washington, something clearly clicked right away between the team and player, and the Redskins’ hard and fast sell was more than enough to land one of the biggest acquisitions of the 2016 offseason.
That said, the sting of the exit from Carolina lingers on.
“I began to envision my life [in Carolina], growing old there,” Norman said. “I envisioned being that guy who lived his whole life in the Carolinas, and could positively impact that area.”
It wasn’t to be. A change of heart within the Panthers organization spawned a fast and furious recruitment period, which was won by the team that sold their style to Norman the quickest.
