The Redskins have a long history of making head scratching free agent signings. We all know them so there is no need to list them and rub salt in an open wound. You’re welcome Skins fans. So naturally we need to ask, is Josh Norman the next in a long line of Daniel Snyder free agent mistakes? In my opinion, he is. There is a silver lining here, though, I don’t think he will crack the top 5 worst Redskins signings.
It’s not that I believe Josh Norman is a bad cornerback, I just believe that the Redskins made a big mistake paying him 75 million with 50 of it guaranteed. Josh is big, fast, physical and a solid CB, but is he elite or even worth the contract he just got? I don’t think so. Maybe his stats are limited by the system he was in or how great the supporting cast was, that can be debated a different time. That said I do believe elite players in the secondary make interceptions happen and cover the other team’s best receiver no matter the formation. So right now I want to take a close look at Josh’s interceptions.
Quick how many interceptions does Josh Norman have in his career? In his 4 year career he has 7 interceptions. 4 of them he got last year, and none were past week 4. Quick, name the QB’s he intercepted. Blake Bortles, Luke McCown, and Jameis Winston (twice). Now has anyone bothered to go back and review these interceptions? His first interception of the year came against Black Bortles. His receiver was doing a down and out and Blake threw the ball on the inside, behind the receiver, and Josh walked right into his first interception of the year, if that ball was thrown to the outside he is not even close to the interception. His second interception came against Luke McCown (yup the backup Verizon guy). On this one, he was beaten down the sideline by a mile, but Luke under threw the ball and Josh laid out and made a great catch for the interception. Now if Luke puts this ball out in front of his receiver Josh is toast. Now his third and fourth interceptions come against the rookie Jameis Winston. The first one against Jameis is almost an exact replay of his first one. Receiver goes for a down and out and the ball is thrown behind the receiver and Josh again walks into the interception. The second interception on Jameis was on an in route and I bet you can guess what happened, another ball behind the receiver and another play where Josh is trailing the receiver, but still gets the easy interception. Not too impressive so far.
Since there are only 3 more career interceptions let’s look at those too. In 2014 he had 2 interceptions. First one was against Seattle. Marshawn Lynch was coming over the middle, Russel Wilson hits him in his hand’s ball goes through his hands and pops up in the air and Josh comes down with it for the interception. His other interception came against the Brian Hoyer and the Browns. Travis Benjamin had Josh beat by at least 5 yards, but Hoyer drastically under threw the ball and Josh catches up and makes the pick. Finally one last interception all the way back in 2012 against Chicago. Brandon Marshall is flying down the field and has everyone beat, Jay Cutler lets it fly and you guessed it the ball was under thrown and here come Josh for the interception.
So what have we learned today? 6 out of 7 career interceptions by Josh Norman involve balls that were either underthrown or thrown behind the receiver, and the last one was a ball that went through the receiver’s hands and was up for grabs. He does not have a single interception in 4 years where he fights for a ball and comes down with an interception. Or worse yet as a cover 2 corner, not one interception where he reads the play, jumps the route, and steps in front of the receiver for the interception. That is how you create interceptions in cover 2 and he has ZERO interceptions that way in four years. As I said before Josh is a solid corner, but I have not seen anything that convinces me that he is a shutdown corner or even the best cover 2 corner, and the money he got is usually reserved for a shutdown corner, not a good cover 2 corners. I know the Redskins face some of the top receivers in their schedule and the felt a need to improve their poor secondary, but if they wanted to stop the likes of Dez Bryant or Odell Beckham they should have looked for a shutdown corner. If they brought Josh into strictly play cover 2 then I believe they greatly overpaid for the services of a corner a patch of grass and not match up with the other team’s best receiver.
[wysija_form id=”1″]Michael Kelley is a member of the Going For 2 team. You can check out his website Dynasty League Problems for more writings or follow him on Twitter @mikekelleydlp.
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