Some franchise tagged players have already scampered to sign their tenders, including Kirk Cousins and Cordy Glenn. Don't expect Josh Norman to put pen to paper on his one-year, $13.952 million tender anytime soon.
"I'm comfortable where I'm at. Trust and believe," Norman told the Charlotte Observer's Jonathan Jones on Friday. "If I've waited this long I can wait on them some more. I got no problem waiting. Waiting got me where I need to be at the end of the day.
"Trust me: waiting is my specialty."
Often when a player rushes to sign his franchise tag tender, it's an indicator he (or his reps) knows the tag value is higher than their actual value. Norman has no such inclinations.
The 28-year-old defender rebuked a contract offer of $7 million per year last season, then went out and proved to be one of the top cornerbacks in the NFL. Now he wants to be paid like it.
Darrelle Revis signed a five-year, $70.1 million deal with $39 million guaranteed last year. Patrick Peterson owns a $70 million deal with $48 million guaranteed. Richard Sherman earned a $56 million extension with $40 million guaranteed in 2014.
Norman, a first-team All-Pro, won't put a number on what he expects to get paid, but it's clear it aligns near the top of the position.
"I'm talking about a number that defines and displays what I do each and every day; the work that I put in on the football field," Norman said. "Now, we're not talking about the work I put in on the practice field. That work is just extra. We're not even talking about that. You don't even have to put that in.
"But on Sundays? (Norman laughs.) That is the work. That's what we do. And that demands a certain number. People pay to see that. People pay to see the show. Why am I any different than someone else when I'm trying to get mine? I'm not."
Norman told Jones that if a long-term deal isn't inked before the July 15 deadline he has no plans to hold out. The Carolina native also brushed aside any notion of a "hometown discount."
"If you're the best at what you do, like the best -- it doesn't matter if you're a truck driver, salesman, reporter, server -- don't you think you should be paid like you're the best at something?" Norman said. "Or are you going to take a pay cut and let a lesser person get the same as you? Would you? Even though it's your hometown and all, I get it. That's the question you've got to ask yourself.
"People wanted me to take the deal that was offered to me last year and thought I was crazy about it. That is your mentality. That is what you think. But for me and mine, I think something much higher."
