Buffalo Bills Signed Cornerback Josh Norman to 1 Year $6 Million Contract

Posted by DavidGreen
Mar 11, 2020

Introduction

On Monday, March 9th, 2020 the Buffalo Bills agreed to sign star cornerback free agent, Josh Norman, to a 1 year $6 million contract. The new agreement is valued at $8 million after including the incentives that are built in to this new deal.

Sean McDermott is now the head coach of the Buffalo Bills who was Josh Norman’s defensive coordinator during his time with the Carolina Panthers from 2012 to 2015. This means that they are already comfortable with working with each other.

Starting Cornerbacks

The Bills have an NFL All Pro star cornerback in Tre’Davious Williams who will most likely be the number one starting cornerback for this organization. The Bills also have Levi Wallace who has played as a starting cornerback for the Buffalo Bills over their last two seasons. Wallace has started 23 games for the Bills over the previous two years.

The Buffalo Bills signed the former Houston Texan’s first round pick Kevin Johnson in 2019 as well. Apparently both Wallace and Johnson are free agents at the moment, and Buffalo has the exclusive rights to sign Levi Wallace for the 2020 – 2021 NFL season and beyond. The team is most likely going to retain Wallace according to the Buffalo Bills general manager, Brandon Beane.

Josh Norman’s Journey in the National Football League

Norman played his collegiate football at Coastal Carolina, and he was selected in the fifth round of the 2012 NFL draft with the 143rd overall pick by the Carolina Panthers. Norman played with the Panthers for 4 years from 2012 through the 2015 – 2016 NFL season. Carolina decided to use the franchise tag on Norman, but they ultimately rescinded that franchise tag during the 2016 offseason.

The star cornerback then quickly signed a five year $75 million contract with the Washington Redskins. That made him the highest paid cornerback in the NFL at that time. Norman played 4 years with the Redskins from 2016 through the 2019 – 2020 NFL season. On February 14th, 2020 Washington’s recently acquired head coach, Ron Rivera, contacted Norman to let him know the Redskins were releasing him. This move saved the Washington Redskins $12.5 million in cap space.

The controversial defensive back will now join the Buffalo Bills for the upcoming NFL season before once again becoming a free agent following the conclusion of the 2020 – 2021 football season. During his eight years in the NFL Norman has recorded 416 tackles, 79 passes defended, 14 interceptions, 2 touchdowns, 12 forced fumbles, and 1 sack.

The Buffalo Bills went 10 and 6 last season, and made a playoff appearance in which they lost a heart breaking game to the Houston Texans largely due to a huge performance from Deshawn Watson. Hopefully for Norman the Bills will be contenders again this upcoming National Football League 2020 – 2021 season.

Norman's Career Regular Season Defensive Statistics

					Games		Def Interceptions					Fumbles						Tackles
Year	Age	Tm	Pos	No.	G	GS	Int	Yds	TD	Lng	PD	FF	Fmb	FR	Yds	TD	Sk	Comb	Solo	Ast	TFL	QBHits	AV
2012	25	CAR	RCB	24	16	12	1	2	0	2	7						0	73	52	21	0	0	5
2013	26	CAR		24	7	0											0	4	3	1	1	0	0
2014	27	CAR	RCB	24	14	10	2	60	0	33	11	1	1	1	0	0	0	48	36	12	0	0	4
2015*+	28	CAR	RCB	24	16	16	4	110	2	46	18	3	0	2	12	0	0	56	48	8	3	0	15
2016	29	WAS	CB	24	16	16	3	38	0	35	19	2	0	0	0	0	0	67	52	15	2	1	5
2017	30	WAS	CB	24	14	13	0	0	0	0	9	2	0	1	0	0	0	64	47	17	0	0	5
2018	31	WAS	CB	24	16	16	3	79	0	40	9	3	0	1	0	0	0	64	40	24	1	0	7
2019	32	WAS	cb/db	24	12	8	1	2	0	2	6	1	0	0	0	0	1	40	33	7	1	0	3
Career					111	91	14	291	2	46	79	12	1	5	12	0	1	416	311	105	8	1	44
4 yrs		CAR			53	38	7	172	2	46	36	4	1	3	12	0	0	181	139	42	4	0	24
4 yrs		WAS			58	53	7	119	0	40	43	8	0	2	0	0	1	235	172	63	4	1	20

Norman's Career Regular Season Advanced Defensive Statistics

					Games		Pass Coverage												Pass Rush					Tackles
Year	Age	Tm	Pos	No.	G	GS	Int	Tgt	Cmp	Cmp%	Yds	Yds/Cmp	Yds/Tgt	TD	Rat	DADOT	Air	YAC	Bltz	Hrry	QBKD	Sk	Prss	Comb	MTkl	MTkl%
2018	31	WAS	CB	24	16	16	3	86	57	66.30%	733	12.9	8.5	8	109.3	8.5	396	337	0	0	0	0	0	64	11	14.70%
2019	32	WAS	cb/db	24	12	8	1	46	31	67.40%	444	14.3	9.7	7	129	14.8	373	71	1	0	0	1	1	40	4	9.10%

Norman's Career Playoff Defensive Statistics

				Games		Def Interceptions					Fumbles						Tackles
Year	Age	Tm	Pos	G	GS	Int	Yds	TD	Lng	PD	FF	Fmb	FR	Yds	TD	Sk	Comb	Solo	Ast	TFL	QBHits
2014	27	CAR	RCB	2	2											0		4	2	1	0
2015*+	28	CAR	RCB	3	3	0	0	0	0	4						1		6	3	1	1
Career				5	5	0	0	0	0	4						1	15	10	5	2	1

Norman's Snap Count Statistics

					Games		Off.		Def.		ST
Year	Age	Tm	Pos	No.	G	GS	Num	Pct	Num	Pct	Num	Pct
2012	25	CAR	RCB	24	16	12	0	0%	771	73%	126	28%
2013	26	CAR		24	7	0	0	0%	102	10%	55	13%
2014	27	CAR	RCB	24	14	10	0	0%	632	62%	147	33%
2015*+	28	CAR	RCB	24	16	16	0	0%	1062	97%	81	17%
2016	29	WAS	CB	24	16	16	0	0%	1057	96%	71	16%
2017	30	WAS	CB	24	14	13	0	0%	901	82%	31	7%
2018	31	WAS	CB	24	16	16	0	0%	1028	100%	0	0%
2019	32	WAS	cb/db	24	12	8	0	0%	603	53%	2	1%
Career							0		6156		513
4 yrs		CAR			53	38	0		2567		409
4 yrs		WAS			58	53	0		3589		104

Media Statements

"I have no doubt that Levi can go out there and earn it again, but we're not into just giving out jobs,” says the Buffalo Bills general manager Brandon Beane. “He knows that. He had a little offseason procedure on his shoulder. He's got to overcome that as well. So we have to protect ourselves. There can always be setbacks.”

"I was happy with Kevin. I thought he did a nice job," Beane stated. "I think missing a year, it probably took him a little time to get his feet back underneath him."

"The coaches were probably more comfortable early on with Levi, but they were starting to split more reps and then Levi rolled his ankle and he jumped in there," Beane explained. "He was a former first-round pick. His biggest issue for his career has been durability. It's not been that he couldn't play the game. He played like 33 percent or something like that. He'll still have to go out and prove, whether it's playing with us and winning a starting job, or if he goes out to another team, I'm sure he's going to want to prove 'I can play even more than 33 percent of snaps.' It's something he'll have to answer. Until you do it, that's always a question."

"We’re very familiar with Josh," says Beane. “We had some great years with him. I remember the day we drafted him and where he grew from."

“If it's a guy that fits what you need – whatever the hole is – and he fits our DNA, it's nice to have a box checked off,” Beane expressed. “OK, this was a need that we needed to address in free agency, and we got it now. I’m definitely monitoring that."

“It keeps you from having to necessarily chase when the dollars start getting high in free agency,” Beane goes on to say. “You're generally going to spend on the edge of where you're comfortable or maybe even slightly above in free agency if you're chasing guys that five, six other teams are after.”

Sources:

“Bills agree to 1-year deal with CB Josh Norman”, espn.com, March 9, 2020.

“What Bills' addition of Josh Norman could mean for Levi Wallace, Kevin Johnson”, Jay Skurski, buffalonews.com, March 9, 2020.

“Josh Norman”, pro-football-reference.com, March 10, 2020.