Is Josh Norman the piece the Redskins needed? 'Look at the film. It doesn't lie'
ASHBURN, Va. – On many days, before most people were rubbing the sleep out of their eyes, Washington Redskins general manager Scot McCloughan was climbing a staircase around the corner from his office at the team's headquarters. Often, he would sit down and swivel his chair in the direction of a conference room where an endless stream of practice tape awaited his staff. On his left, a wall of televisions might be flickering with some form of NFL Films. Highlights of Jerry Rice or Joe Greene. A top-10 list of running backs. Maybe a documentary on quarterbacks.
It has been like this for McCloughan for a few years now. Visitors might come in and stare over their shoulder, making conversation about a particular player. But to McCloughan, he would always see teams in the footage, not players. He would see cultures. That's what commanded his attention. So while a visitor on Tuesday arrived and asked about cornerback Josh Norman, McCloughan's entry into the conversation was to speak about the team around him.
"We're quicker," McCloughan said Tuesday. "Bigger, younger, faster, more competitive."
He leaned forward.
"The culture is what I want to build," he said. "If we win a championship, that would be awesome. But I want guys to understand the importance of being a team. It's not about the individuals. It's the sum of the parts. … We're not close to where we need to be yet, but it's going in the right direction. Definitely."
Make no mistake, the Redskins are better. But they are still a Josh Norman story. Rarely is a team gifted the unexpected opportunity to sign an All-Pro cornerback, especially one who was coming off a career season and a Super Bowl appearance. That said, Norman is only one point of light for a Redskins franchise that is suddenly looking remarkably intriguing heading into the offseason break. And McCloughan is at the center of that.
A little over 17 months ago, the Redskins hired him to revamp the talent base. And with his second training camp less than two months away, the results are already obvious. The NFL is no longer a league of three-year plans. Every position is basically an annual scholarship – and renewal is never a given. As McCloughan put it, "You've got to rock and roll." That, or the NFL tour moves on without you.
So here the Redskins are, with energy and airiness that is a departure from this time one year ago. Quarterback Robert Griffin is gone, taking with him an atmosphere of anxiety over what might be said next, what might be tweeted, whether or not the next day would feature an unexpected news conference or disjointed quote in the media. That alone has made the quarterbacks meeting room more manageable. Meanwhile, Griffin's presumed long-term replacement, Kirk Cousins, hasn't locked in a long-term deal – yet there is little worry on either side of the negotiating table that things will take a turn for the ugly. If Cousins gets his deal done, both sides will rejoice. If he doesn't, both sides still know it's in everyone's best interests that he take a step forward in his development. If that happens, everyone wins. It will cost the Redskins more, but the price tag will also come with some peace of mind.
As for Norman, he was an unexpected blessing. But one that Washington deserves some credit for reeling in. The New Orleans Saints were readying themselves to take their best shot at Norman in free agency, but never got their chance. Once they saw the red carpet treatment Norman was getting on his visit to Washington, they began shutting down some salary cap shuffling that would have allowed them to make an offer. The Saints saw it quickly. Once McCloughan got Norman into the building, he wasn't leaving without a deal in place.
McCloughan is realistic about that big offseason win. It cost plenty, certainly a little more than the Redskins' brass would have liked. But this is how free agency tilts nowadays. There is only one price for the truly talented, and it always settles down in a richer neighborhood than you expected. Norman was no different. But McCloughan was the difference, not just the money. He still remembers watching Norman come out of nowhere and light up the East-West Shrine game. From that moment on, he marveled as Norman built himself into an All Pro despite lacking 4.4-second speed.
"To see the pro he has become is incredible," McCloughan said. "To be an All Pro is unique. It doesn't happen very often. If he is who I think he is, seeing him out here on the practice field and talking to him face to face, he's a quality person and a really good football player. That's huge. That's what you want to surround yourself with. When I walk in here every morning, I want a football team, not just a football player. We're going to win as a team, not just as a player."
That's where the Redskins become a Norman story again. He fits the mold of what McCloughan seeks. Someone who works hard and prospers because of that ethic, but also knows his highest value is functioning and helping raise a broader unit. Norman buys into that. Indeed, he bought into it with the Carolina Panthers, too, which might explain why he still scratches his head over that hasty divorce.
To be fair, Norman is all-in with the Redskins. He has already formed a close bond with safety DeAngelo Hall, something that is immediately evident at team practices. But it would be naïve to think Norman has resolved his last chapter in Carolina, or lost his love for the teammates he expected to be with at this very moment.
"The guys over there [in Carolina] are – they're my guys," Norman said Tuesday. "That doesn't end. It doesn't stop just because I'm up here. You've got to think about it. Things kind of happened overnight. You just want a guy to move on from that? OK, sure. If that's what you want. But come on. At the end of the day, you're human. You're going to love those guys and miss them. Of course."
Even now, Norman is still a mix of emotions when it comes to his end with the Panthers. He sees his departure as being a result of never being one of the favorites of Panthers general manager Dave Gettleman. And he takes two things personally: the narrative that he was going to become disruptive in his holdout and the idea that he wasn't the pivotal part of the Panthers fielding one of the nastiest pass defenses in the NFL.
"Look at the film," Norman said. "It doesn't lie."
But he's not harping on the end. The only thing that lingers is how cut-throat NFL business can be. If there's one thing he might change about how he ceased being a Carolina Panther, it's that he would have appreciated a phone call from someone in the organization when his franchise tag was being rescinded.
"You're thinking everything is fine and dandy," Norman said. "You're tight with the owner and everything. And next thing you know, one morning you get a call. Actually, you don't even get a call. They just do it out of the blue. You'd think that, 'Damn, I put all that work into a team, I gave them a whole four years of my life and dedicated everything to them.' You'd think you would at least get a call. That didn't even happen. I ended up having to call them and seeing what was going on."
But Norman is quick to add that the chapter is closing. And it has left him in a space in his life where despite being one of the highest-paid defensive players in the NFL, he feels he needs to prove himself all over again.
"I'm not going to sit back and say, 'Well, they wronged me, so I'm going to wrong them,'" Norman said. "I didn't grow up like that. I wasn't trained like that. To me, if somebody wronged you, you just prove them wrong. And you do it by going out there and doing your work each and every day. …
"[Success] wasn't given to me. It was earned. I didn't take the blue pill, the easy way. I always wanted the red pill, where it's like, 'Where's that hard work?' Because that's what makes you better."
It's that kind of mentality that makes Norman such a huge Redskins story heading into training camp. The fabric of that statement is exactly what McCloughan envisioned for this roster when he set out to rebuild it. As he might say, find the players who are quicker, bigger, younger, faster and more competitive … then get them to buy into each other.
"You get enough of those guys lining up together," McCloughan said. "That's how you build an entire organization."
