The Buffalo Bills are smart to be cautious with Josh Norman as he recovers from a hamstring injury.
On Thursday, the Buffalo Bills saw Josh Norman go down with a leg injury during practice, arguably the most concerning injury to this point of training camp. While they don’t know the severity yet, the hamstring injury doesn’t appear to be too serious based on Sean McDermott’s comments on Friday.
He mentioned that right now the biggest focus for Josh Norman is to get the necessary treatment and focus on that. The best thing the Bills could do at this point is take a cautious approach with the focus to be on having Josh Norman ready for Week 1.
Entering training camp, the free agent addition was in a position battle with returning veteran Levi Wallace. However, defensive coordinator Leslie Frazier seemed to indicate that Norman had the edge in the training camp battle due to his experience.
This is one of the big reasons why the Buffalo Bills should not be quick to rush the cornerback back into practice. Typically there is a learning curve for a free agent however Josh Norman knows this defense very well from his time with the Carolina Panthers. The first four years of Norman’s career, Sean McDermott was his defensive coordinator from 2012 to 2015.
The reason the Buffalo Bills should be extra cautious with Josh Norman is it could cost them their starting cornerback but also be a big loss for the depth at the position. The cornerback position has been a point of concern and since the team will already be without E.J. Gaines, losing Josh Norman would cost them a great deal of experience.
After Levi Wallace, the current cornerbacks are Ike Brown, Cam Lewis and seventh round draft pick Dane Jackson. All three players combined have yet to play a regular season snap with Lewis added last offseason as undrafted free agent and Brown and Jackson rookies this year.
Hopefully the hamstring injury does not linger for Josh Norman and he will be ready to go for the Buffalo Bills in Week 1 against the New York Jets.