La Canfora: Norman situation doesn’t add up

Something just doesn’t add up for in this entire Josh Norman saga. Actually, several things don’t add up.

If this truly is as simple as a player on the franchise tag having an overinflated value of his worth, and a team simply granting him free agency as a result of seeing no clear path to retaining him long-term, well, I suppose on a certain level it would be noble to honor the letter of the law with the franchise tag. But that’s not how it really works, and plenty of teams have utilized the services of a player for one year on the franchise tag only to let him willfully hit the open market a year later. Happens all the time, in fact.

What almost never happens is letting a franchise player go back into the open market after already tagging him (the Eagles did it with Jeremiah Trotter many moons ago, off the top of my head, but it’s anything but the norm).

So color me baffled at this outcome for many reasons.

First of all, it’s been widely known since the combine that Norman was seeking a mega-deal in line with Joe Haden’s contract with the Browns and that he wanted to be the highest-paid corner in the game if at all possible. That isn’t a revelation. And the Panthers still had the right to sign him to a long-term deal until July 15, which allowed for plenty of time to see if his number changed at all or if that deadline spurred any action. To simply release him in April, a week before the draft, struck many execs around the league as bizarre.

Norman was never going to be easy to sign long-term, and frankly, it might never have made sense for this team to sign him long-term, which was pretty apparent way back in February when Norman was tagged. So, if the idea was that the Panthers needed his $14 million in cap or cash to spend on other players, well, that ship sailed a month ago when the best players in shallow market got scooped up. It’s slim pickins out there now. And while I fully expect the Panthers to announce a new extension for defensive tackle Kawann Short shortly, and this money frees up a little more room to extend Star Lotulelei should they want to get him off the fifth-year option, the reality is even with Norman on the tag those moves likely could have been accomplished.

To move him now, without even exploring a trade scenario at the draft, or shopping him around, was shocking to me. To do so at a time when the Panthers are quite thin at cornerback and missed a chance …

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