Josh Norman earned his only Pro Bowl in 2015 with Carolina and Sean McDermott as his defensive coordinator. It earned Norman a megadeal with Washington in 2016 after the Panthers rescinded the franchise tender.
Things didn’t work out so well in Washington as he was benched and released, so now he’s signed a one-year deal with the Bills to reunite with McDermott.
The Bills are convinced they can get more out of Norman than Washington did. General Manager Brandon Beane has said Washington’s defense didn’t play to Norman’s strengths, and McDermott indicated the same Thursday.
“Watching Josh’s film after he got released by the Redskins, there’s been a lot of talk about how he played and maybe his chapter in Washington didn’t unfold the way a lot of people had hoped,” McDermott said in a conference call with the team’s beat writers. “Here’s what I would tell you about Josh. He’s a highly-competitive individual and sometimes the grass isn’t always greener from a system or scheme standpoint, and culture as well. That’s another example of people coming to Buffalo and regaining in this case a better version of one’s self. He experienced great success in Carolina with our culture and system, and hopefully coming to a similar culture and system, he’ll be able to regain his form. I know he’s working hard.”