Before Panthers players face questions about matching up against former teammate Josh Norman this week, Carolina’s coaches went down memory lane on Monday.

 

Coach Ron Rivera

 

What are your thoughts on facing Josh this week?

“He’s a unique talent. It’ll be fun, or I think it will be fun. He’s going to have a challenge. We’ll have a challenge, as well. And we’ll just see what happens. It’s going to be a unique set of circumstances seeing him out there. He’ll bring his best game because he’ll want to play well and I know our guys will want to play well against him.”

Did the decision to rescind his franchise tag catch you off guard?

“I think that’s a question for Dave (Gettleman), guys. I’m not going to talk about what we do and the reason we do things. That’s a question for Dave.”

Were you ever close to pulling the plug on Josh after he went up and down his first couple years?

“No, because we saw the talent and we saw the ability. We got frustrated with him, and he’s stubborn, and he’s hardheaded, but he’s tremendously talented, and we know that. You don’t give up on talented players; that’s one of the things that Dave used to always chirp to us about. I know Coach Wilks put a lot of work into Josh and Steve had a lot of faith that the kid was going to get it and he was going to be something special. We saw it when he first got here, but it was just a matter of him playing disciplined, playing within the scheme, and then we saw the 2014 season, and it really flourished in 2015. Then we really saw who he could become.”

Do you say anything to your players heading into a matchup like this?

“I’ll be honest, I didn’t think about it until this morning when (communications director) Steven Drummond and I talked about it. I told him, ‘That’s right.’ I kind of look forward to it. Again, he’s a unique personality. He fit very well into who we were last year and it’ll be fun to see him.”

Do you have a Josh story that makes you laugh?

“The haircuts. I love the haircuts.”

Have you guys talked since all this went down?

“Oh, yeah. Most certainly. When it all happened, Josh and I talked. I ran into him a couple other times and had some nice conversations. When he did have the concussion, I guess it was the Detroit game, I texted him saying, ‘I hope you’re doing well and hanging in there.’ He texted me back and said, ‘Thanks for thinking of me.’ Again, he’s a unique individual.”

He wanted to stay. Did he make a plea to you personally to stay?

“I’m not going to get into that part of it.”

 

Offensive coordinator Mike Shula

 

What do you remember about going against Josh during practices?

“We had a lot of fun in practice competing against Josh with our receivers and with Cam. He’s really talented. You always want to put your best game together against those kind of guys because you have a lot of respect for them and you know that if you do succeed against them, you’ve done some good things. He’s very smart. He’s extremely talented. He’s long, makes plays on the ball. We’ve known him from practice, but you’ve got to watch film and get used to how he’s playing again. He’s like a lot of those other good corners. You’ve got to make sure when you’re attacking him, there’s certain things that he likes and certain things that you don’t like.”

What does someone like Kelvin Benjamin have to do to prepare for a matchup with Josh?

“I think one of the things that makes him unique is he’s pretty good against smaller receivers and he’s pretty good against bigger receivers. And he may play Kelvin differently than what Kelvin’s watching him play other guys. That’s stuff we’ll look at during the course of the week.”

Do remember anything from his practices against Steve Smith?

“There were some good matchups in practice, for sure. Him not backing down from Steve because Steve was always trying to intimidate the young guys coming in. He didn’t really back down from him.”

 

 

 

Defensive coordinator Sean McDermott

 

What were your initial thoughts when Josh had the franchise tag rescinded?

“Here’s what I’ll say about Josh: Josh is a good player and I enjoyed coaching him when he was here. To say what he does for their defense and get into all those deals, those are really not for me to answer right now. I really want to focus on their players and their offense. If I spend time focusing on Josh this week, DeSean Jackson’s running by me at the same time.”

But what did he do for your defense last year?

“He was a big asset to our defense. He was in the room and it was fun to develop. He worked hard at his craft and was a big part of what we’ve done over the last number of years. That’s his business. Players are here and sometimes players graduate to different systems. I’m extremely happy with the two corners we’ve got right now, and a lot of work to get done yet still.”

What was it like watching him rise from a guy who didn’t even get in on defense in the 2014 opener to what he became last year?

“At the end of the day, I believe coaches are always teachers and mentors. So it gives you joy as a coach to watch a young man develop, both on the field and off the field. And when you look at Josh, I look back at tape and you say, ‘OK, this is where he was, no look at two or three years later how he really became a polished player and developed off the field as well.’ You love to show our young players that same vision – here’s where you can go if you do the right things. That’s the joy of coaching. That’s why we do what we do. It’s teaching and it’s being a developer of human beings and young men.”