Will Josh Norman Find Disaster or Renewed Dominance in New Redskins Defense?

Josh Norman has taken a long road to earn the five-year, $75 million contract he signed this offseason with the Washington Redskins. Now labeled as a star, a potential savior for the Redskins pass defense that finished 26th in the NFL in yards per pass and tied for 25th in interceptions in 2015, all eyes are on him in training camp.

To truly understand how Norman, a 28-year-old, rose to his talent level and why some Washington fans are concerned with his camp performance, you have to unravel the story of his early career. Norman didn't go to Oklahoma, USC or Florida State. Instead, his college career kicked off as a walk-on corner for the Coastal Carolina Chanticleers, where he started seven games as a true freshman.

That momentum carried on through his time in Conway, South Carolina, the college town with a population of less than 20,000 people. He would eventually work his way into a scholarship, and he found a spot in a postseason all-star game as a senior—the East-West Shrine Game.

The Shrine Game isn't as touted as the Senior Bowl, the apex for outgoing seniors looking to improve their draft stock, but it was the first time in Norman's career that he was able to go toe-to-toe with FBS talent on a consistent basis. After his week in St. Petersburg, Florida, Eric Galko of Optimum Scouting called him a "diamond in the rough" and noted the University of Georgia had been pursuing Norman before they learned about his academic issues.

His momentum was going up, until his NFL Scouting Combine performance. In Indianapolis, he ran a 4.66-second 40-yard dash and a 7.09-second three-cone drill—numbers that are closer to elite pass-rushers than elite cornerbacks. Despite his length, measuring in at a legit 6'0", the fact he ran those numbers had to have impacted his draft stock negatively.

On draft weekend, he had to wait until Day 3 to hear his name called, as the Carolina Panthers drafted him in the fifth round. Once they got him into camp, they couldn't take him off the field, as he flashed the same talent in practice as he did at the Shrine Game.

He started 12 games in 2012, though he only played seven games in a sophomore-slump season of 2013. In 2014, he reestablished himself as a starter with the team, and 2015 was his breakout season. It was his first as a back-to-back starter, which wound up with the Panthers winning 15 games in the regular season, earning a spot in the Super Bowl and Norman making the first-team All-Pro list.

So, how did the Panthers turn an overaged, athletically limited FCS corner into one of the best in the league? First, they avoided playing him in man coverage for the majority of his reps. 

"

Josh Norman's cousin made a t-shirt out of the Jay-Z name drop on "I Got The Keys" #Redskins pic.twitter.com/9WTrgRxoYw

— Master Tesfatsion (@MasterTes) August 4, 2016"

While Jay-Z claimed he's "one-on-one with the corner with no safety help" like Norman this summer on a track called "I Got the Keys," a phrase Norman's cousin had printed on a shirt in Washington camp, it's pretty clear Shawn Carter hasn't been breaking down coaches' film on the defensive back.

Carolina's personnel led to the team playing zone-heavy defense for two reasons:

1. The Panthers base the majority of their pressure from interior pressure, where their 4-3 defensive tackles Star Lotulelei and Kawann Short play. In their scheme, either can play nose tackle or under tackle—somewhat of a rarity in the NFL.
2. Their linebacker unit may be the best bunch of coverage linebackers we have ever seen. Luke Kuechly is an all-world athlete and likely has the inside lane on any "who is the best middle linebacker in the NFL?" debate. Carolina's top outside linebackers are Thomas Davis and Shaq Thompson, who both transitioned into the box after spending some time at safety in college.

Interior pressure forces quarterbacks to throw off their back feet, leading to sporadic accuracy deep, and the deep-zone drops the Panthers linebackers take allow for smaller zone assignments for Carolina's safeties, which also reflects to smaller zones for cornerbacks.

Norman wins with his ability to read a quarterback's eyes, not his athleticism. In zone defense, defensive backs hang in an area of the field and break on routes as they see quarterbacks read the field, whereas man defenses have a cornerback's eyes locked onto a wideout—the opposite of what you'd want to do with Norman.

After a contract dispute revolving around the franchise tag placed on Norman, Carolina released the corner just before the draft. Fans then spun this as a reflection of Norman's value in the NFL. 

"

Opposing QBs had a 54.0 passer rating when throwing at Josh Norman (@J_No24) in 2015.

No CB was better. #Redskins pic.twitter.com/fLDiLVPIlK

— Pro Football Focus (@PFF) July 22, 2016"

Sure, he's not prime Darrelle Revis, shutting down an entire side of the field by himself, but Norman can still be a high-level player in the right scheme, as Pro Football Focus noted that he had the best defensive quarterback rating of any corner in the league when thrown to last season. 

"

Desean Jackson making Josh Norman look silly 👀 pic.twitter.com/D917tgPtjR

— Sports Plays (@SportsPIays) August 6, 2016"

So what's the fuss about in Washington's camp? If it's not DeSean Jackson, who has track-star speed, it's Pierre Garcon, who's torching Norman in practice on a given day. What these four-second video clips need is context, though.

Zone defense is about chemistry and passing off assignments, much like the offensive line, and all of these Vines coming out of the Redskins' summer camp that show Norman being "exposed" are one-on-one drills. In one-on-one drills, defensive backs are supposed to lose. If covering receivers on an island was efficient, teams would be blitzing six defenders on every play and would never play nickel or dime defense, but that's simply not reality.

Truly, you can't judge defensive backs in these drills, which are designed for receivers to flash. Until he's on the field in scrimmages, making mistakes in zone coverage, it's silly to call Norman "exposed." He's simply playing out of structure.

If you turn on any Carolina game last season, you'll see Norman thrive in zone defense, be it as a Cover 2 cornerback low on the line of scrimmage, as a Cover 4 cornerback taking up the sideline or as a Cover 3 cornerback in rolling two-high looks. When he's playing press-man coverage, he has good ball technique, and when he's playing off-man coverage, he does a great job of breaking on the ball.

One of his more impressive plays last season was when he broke on a fumble from a 10-yard by five-yard stack off the Atlanta Falcons offensive line and was able to snatch the ball up before any Falcon or his own teammates in the front seven. He has great eyes; the Redskins just need to put him in a position to use them.

The question then becomes this: Will Washington run a zone-heavy defense in 2016, or will Norman continue to be played out of position?

A transition to a 3-4 defense will mean hybrid defensive tackles are out of the question, but the Redskins do seem to have taken steps toward developing a strong-coverage linebacker unit. In the second round of the draft, less than a month after Norman's signing with the team, Washington drafted Su'a Cravens—a hybrid linebacker and safety from USC.

Looking back through the Redskins' 2015 games under defensive coordinator Joe Barry, it's clear the team is going to mix up looks, but Washington doesn't want to play man often, using it almost exclusively on blitzing downs. The fuss over Norman's camp performance means little to nothing for his regular-season projection.

In the preseason's live games, we'll see Norman running familiar zone concepts, Cover 2, Cover 3 and Cover 4, and we'll forget entirely that this episode even occurred. Norman's camp tenure should be a teaching point to those unfamiliar with how coverages and practice drills are ran, rather than used as a point to tear down an All-Pro corner who was one game away from being the defensive face of a Super Bowl champion team.

He's still the same player who fought for a scholarship at Coastal Carolina. He's still the same player who fought for his break at the East-West Shrine Game. He's still the same player who fought for and won starting jobs twice with the Panthers.

Camp rumors and drills that poorly manage his talent won't hold him back in 2016.