Andrew Norwell news from Pro Football Talk

[SCO96]

I don't think this has been posted by anyone here yet. I going to paste the first half of the article. Follow the link if you want to read the entire thing...it's pretty short.

https://profootballtalk.nbcsports.com/2019/06/06/after-big-contract-with-jaguars-andrew-norwell-let-my-teammates

Last year guard Andrew Norwell signed a five-year, $66.5 million contract with the Jaguars, which at the time made him the highest-paid guard in the league. The return on the Jaguars’ investment was not good.

Norwell missed five games with injuries, didn’t play particularly well in the games he did play, and admitted that he had a poor first year in Jacksonville.

“It’s no excuse, but it wasn’t my healthiest season,” Norwell said, via the Florida Times-Union. “I battled through it and ultimately had a significant injury there and that ended my season. I was very disappointed. I’m not going to let my teammates down like that again.”

------

I was NEVER in favor of paying Norwell that type of money. I'm glad the Panthers let him walk last off-season. I can't see him ever living up to that contract even if he maintain his health going forward. I don't think we really missed him last year. CMac rushed for over 1,000 yds and Cam was having a great year until the shoulder injury, which Norwell's presence wouldn't have prevented. Our 2019 O-line could very well be better than any of the squads a he started on...and the money we saved on his contract has allowed us to build a deeper team in my opinion.  

 

 

[07579394]

We HAD to let him walk,because the cap space

[Pantha-kun]

Panthers chose to pay trai instead,  im pretty sure after that we jist didnt have enough money left to sign him to what he was asking 

[jumpman910]

A lot of people still want Norwell over Turner which was never going to happen. 

Turner is a good bit younger iirc and showed flashes first, is what it is. Both are good/great players and they both got paid 

[Pejorative Miscreant]

I’m glad Norwell was a Panther and an overachieving UDFA. Also glad he got paid.  Even more glad someone else paid him. 

 

Wish him well. 

[PanthersBigD]

The line lost its mean streak when it lost Norwell. That contract the Jags gave him is ridiculous, and I'm glad the Panthers didn't pay him like that, but we were definitely better with him than without him. 

[MHS831]

IN the salary cap era, you cannot be strong at every position.  Part of coaching is exploiting and hiding weaknesses.  If you want to commit to having a great LG, then have at it. 

[Ricky Spanish]

I have nothing but Love for Norwell. 

Also, literally everyone on Jacksonville's offense was terrible last year, not just him. 

Hope he turns it around next year, just not against us. 

[BrianS]

I think that the problem is you're trying to conflate two completely different points.

First, there is absolutely no doubt that our OL would have been better last year with Norwell.  I'm not glad he is gone.  He's a really good OL when healthy.  We should not be happy he's gone.

Second, he got paid commensurate with what an elite OL gets paid.  I am quite glad we didn't pay him like that.  We simply can't / couldn't afford to.

 

When you follow the NFL, you have to make sure you understand that pay and play are not always as tightly related as they should be.  All the guarantees and signing bonuses practically assure that they are not.  Until and unless the NFL is able to more closely tie salary to performance, this problem will continue.  Consider for instance that even if Gerald McCoy completely craps the bed and is inactive for every game, he still gets almost 80% of what he'll get if he has 15 tackles and 2 sacks per game.

[Mistuh Jones]

Hey man, it's a crap shoot for the FA too honestly! He worked his ass of here, so yeah, I hope he rounds back into form. BUT yeah, I'm glad we didn't Hurn 1.0 ourselves with him. 

[SCO96]

8 minutes ago, stbugs said:

Our OL would have been better with him. There’s zero question that he was far, far better with us than Van Roten was last year. Let’s not get revisionist now that he’s gone that we were better without him. It’s funny that you talk glowingly about an OL without Norwell that got all of our QBs hurt according to some.

I hope the OL is better, but the OL from the last 6 games of 2014 through 2015 is the best I think we’ve had an OL play. Pretty sure the 2015 OL ranked in the top 2 or 3 in PFF. That’s a high hurdle even though people will only remember the SB. People always say Cam was incredible that year with weapons not close to what we have now and he was, but the OL play 100% had a huge hand in Cam being able to be the MVP.

It would be fantastic if our 2019 OL plays as well as that OL did. I wasn’t in favor of paying him that much either but I’ll be honest that I thought we would have done way more than Van Roten. 

I've watched nearly every game CMac has started in Carolina. The run blocking was much better last year. He (and Stewart) didn't have much room to run in 2017.  Last year the O-line was opening holes consistently all season long w/out  Norwell (and D. Williams for that matter). I think some of this was due to Christian adjusting to the the NFL and getting physically stronger. Some was due to R. Kalil getting healthy.  

If Cam hadn't got hurt, there is no way we don't finish above .500. We probably would've won 10-11 games and made the playoffs. My point was paying Norwell $13 million would not have made us significantly better even though he is a  better player  than Van Roten. 

[Ricky Spanish]

8 minutes ago, SCO96 said:

I've watched nearly every game CMac has started in Carolina. The run blocking was much better last year. He (and Stewart) didn't have much room to run in 2017.  Last year the O-line was opening holes consistently all season long w/out  Norwell (and D. Williams for that matter). I think some of this was due to Christian adjusting to the the NFL and getting physically stronger. Some was due to R. Kalil getting healthy.  

If Cam hadn't got hurt, there is no way we don't finish above .500. We probably would've won 10-11 games and made the playoffs. My point was paying Norwell $13 million would not have made us significantly better even though he is a  better player  than Van Roten. 

The biggest improvement our offense made was replacing the guy running the show. Turner is 10x the coach Shula is, and it showed from top to bottom. 

Having said that, Norwell deserved that money, just not from us. 

[Khyber53]

Matsko is the most underappreciated assistant coach in the league.

[thefuzz]

Happy for him, and I hinted a few times that we quite possibly paid the wrong G in Trai.

That said, hope he can get healthy and maul for them...but I'd imagine he will be back on the market in 2020, and may want to come home.