Josh Norman launches war of words on Sam Bradford
PHILADELPHIA >> Mark it down.
Josh Norman is the first Eagles’ opponent to trash Doug Pederson’s taste in quarterbacks.
Sam Bradford, well, it’s his job to make Norman eat his own smacktalk.
Pederson didn’t ask to be part of a Norman rant. Pederson played quarterback, coached quarterbacks and traded up in the draft for a coveted quarterback. He’s put his neck on the line for Bradford, who came off as cowardly for demanding a trade after signing a contract with $22 million guaranteed.
Bradford reacted to the Eagles packaging five draft choices, including a future first-rounder, to move up to the second overall pick to draft quarterback Carson Wentz. Did we mention that football operations chief Howie Roseman said the Eagles also would have been comfortable drafting Wentz or Jared Goff?
Norman is an elite cornerback and an astute readbetween-the-lines character. You don’t trade all of those resources to draft a quarterback if, to borrow Norman’s verbiage, you lack a top-20 talent.
Add it all together and you have angst for Pederson, who didn’t seem thrilled Wednesday answering questions about Norman and the ESPN.com interview he gave. Norman ripped Bradford for falling short of being one of those top-20 passers at any time in his career. He then added injury to insult saying “I can’t wait to play him twice a year.”
After the cursory nocomment, nothing really to say, Pederson waived his finger in the direction of Norman because the player did, you know, insult the Eagles’ organization.
“Listen, (Bradford is) a great player and Washington’s got a great player,” Pederson said. “And we’re just happy to play him twice a year and just see what happens.”
How can you not like, “We’re just happy to play him twice a year?”
Give Pederson a star for effort. Yeah, a coach cannot get too personal right now. The Eagles play Norman and Washington in October and December. There’s plenty of time to freshen the smack for those occasions providing, of course, that Bradford still is the quarterback.
We’ve been assured Bradford will be the guy come hell or high water. Only an injury would impact the depth chart because Pederson is convinced beyond a reasonable doubt that Bradford really is better than Wentz, currently idled by a cracked rib.
“I think Sam Bradford is a great quarterback,” Pederson said. “He’s doing everything we’ve asked him to do, and I’ll just leave it at that.”
Bradford wasn’t available to comment Wednesday. Jordan Matthews, his favorite Eagles target, said he rolled his eyes and “kept scrolling” when Norman’s rip hit the Twittersphere.
“I’ll just be honest, I could care less,” Matthews said. “And I know Sam. If Sam had social media he would keep scrolling. He doesn’t care. We play the game, it’s not a war of words. We play the game of football. You go out there and make statements by your play. Nobody is worried about that. I think there’s a lot worse things you can say than that.”
Bradford, after a cursory review of the starting quarterbacks in the NFL now, is in that 15-to-20 range with guys like Jay Cutler, Ryan Fitzpatrick, Kirk Cousins, Eli Manning and Tony Romo. By the way, that’s just about all of the quarterbacks in the NFC East.
Of course, if you have to actually research where your quarterback fits in that’s not nearly as much of a slam dunk. But it could change.
Norman, remember, talked his way out of Carolina. He didn’t sign the fiveyear, $75 million contract with Washington until the Super Bowl runner-up Panthers removed the franchise tag, believing they would be better off without him.
In the Panthers’ scheme, Norman was a shutdown corner. In Washington’s scheme, you just don’t know. There’s no Luke Kuechly or Thomas Davis to anchor the unit.
There’s also history. Washington turned a multidimensional Pro Bowl player in DeSean Jackson into a high-paid, one-dimensional deep threat. Remember what happened when Washington made defensive tackle Albert Haynesworth the highestpaid football player on the planet? Norman could be the latest overindulgence. Or might not be.
“Norman’s a great player,” Eagles tight end Zach Ertz said. “He did some unbelievable things in Carolina. At the end of the day you want to go against the best players and he’s the self-proclaimed best corner on earth. So, everyone’s excited about it.”
At the end of the day the Eagles need a career year out of Bradford to make re-signing him a win-win. Bradford, based on that performance, would be worthy of draft compensation in a trade.
Anything less and the Eagles — and Norman — are going to be clamoring for Wentz.
Trust me, you don’t want to be a Josh Norman oneliner.
“He’s an interesting guy,” Ertz said. “I think guys are excited that he’s in the division. I mean, this is the division for him, I would say, with all the media coverage. He’s a really good player. He was good in Carolina. He had a breakout year last year and we’re excited to play against him, too. You’ve seen the comments from him over the past couple of years. I don’t know him personally at all but it’s funny to see.”