The Bills made their first move of free agency month in March before the free agency period even opens, adding corernback Josh Norman, reportedly on a near worth $8 million per season if incentives are reached.
The Bills are no strangers to adding players before the free agency period opens since Buffalo head coach Sean McDermott and general manager Brandon Beane took over operations. The club has done so on numerous occasions, such as deals they struck with corner Vontae Davis and wideout Duke Williams in recent memory.
Beane first mentioned being interested in adding Norman at the 2020 NFL Scouting Combine in the past few weeks. He confirmed interest but said things are in the early stages.
In Norman, the Bills are getting another player who thrived under McDermott’s watch while he was with the Carolina Panthers. Norman, now 32, had an All-Pro season in 2015 in McDermott’s defense.
But the Bills are still rolling the dice here a bit. Over the past few seasons, things haven’t gone well for Norman. After being franchise tagged and refusing to report to the Panthers after that 2015 season, Norman eventually signed with the Washington Redskins. There, he regressed mightily.
Just this past season alone, he ranked as Pro Football Focus’ 111th-best cornerback in the NFL. It hasn’t been just this season, either. Per PFF, in his first six seasons, Norman allowed 13 touchdowns. In 2019, he allowed seven and over the past two seasons combined, 16 total.
So the Bills are gambling that it wasn’t Norman struggling, it was his fit in the defense run by the Redskins. But as we’ve learned from McDermott, things are not just handed to players under any circumstances. The coach proved that to certainly be true several times, including last season, when he began starting defensive tackle Jordan Phillips over first-round pick Ed Oliver. Norman will have been told this, but he’ll certainly be interested in regaining some respect after his Redskins tenure.
The main competition for Norman in the Bills’ secondary will be Levi Wallace. While a pending free agent himself, he’s an exclusive-rights free agent. That means if the Bills want Wallace back, which, why wouldn’t they given needs for depth? The Bills basically get him for next to nothing. An EFRA, if offered a contract, a league-minimum one, by their team, they have to sign it or sit out an entire year.
But Wallace lost some playing time to Kevin Johnson last season, at times. Down the stretch, the two were splitting some playing time, although Wallace was seeing sightly more snaps per game over Wallace.
The Bills currently have $83 million in salary cap space, the fourth-most in the NFL prior to Norman’s signing. Bumping that down $6 million, his base salary, that’s still a lot, so maybe Johnson returns, but it seems unlikely.
Connecting some dots, Johnson had a solid season for the Bills and played 16 games. He came to Buffalo on a cheap deal because he had a slew of injury issues in his first few seasons with the Texans. Johnson was a first-round pick himself, so his talent levels, combined with the fact that he played 16 games last season for Buffalo, he’ll want to get paid. Did he price himself out of consideration for the Bills? It’s possible. But he’ll likely test the open market, and maybe then circle back to the Bills, but doubtful at this point since there’s even further competition for him to earn playing time via Norman.
Johnson earned a 71.9 overall playing grade last season via PFF’s grading system. That made him the 23rd best cornerback in the NFL per the analytics outlet’s numbers (although, he split playing time, he was not a full-time start seeing the high number of snaps others would). Wallace played well too though, landing at 44th (67.6). Not a big drop off, but again, Johnson will want to cash in on his numbers.
Substituting Norman out for Johnson is a certainly a bold move by the Bills. Johnson will get another contract somewhere and in due time, we’ll see the numbers for comparison’s sake. But bringing in a free agent veteran cornerback in the past has burned the Bills in Vontae Davis and even in EJ Gaines, who wasn’t what he used to be, either.
Norman’s 205 All-Pro year saw him notch 56 tackles, 18 passes defended, four interceptions and three fourced fumbles. In 111 career games, Norman has 14 interceptions, 12 forced fumbles and 79 passes defended.
One way or another we’ll find out if Norman’s talents will shine again in McDermott’s defense.
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