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The San Francisco 49ers are reportedly the front-runners for free agent cornerback Josh Norman, according to Charles Robinson of Yahoo! Sports, but the Jacksonville Jaguars aren't far behind.
#Panthers didn't want to pay Josh Norman elite cornerback money. #49ers have emerged as top free agent contender. https://t.co/k9DbvEy7A4
— Charles Robinson (@CharlesRobinson) April 21, 2016
So, why the 49ers? Well, league sources for one. But Robinson also notes that the 49ers "failed to make a splash in this free-agent market and big-money pitches have been hard to come by this offseason. But their secondary is in need of a significant talent infusion at cornerback, and a source said Norman is the kind of free agent that intrigues ownership."
The Jaguars and the 49ers are the only two teams with $50 million or more in cap space, so they're realistically the only two teams in the Josh Norman sweepstakes. And as we said yesterday, they'd be dumb not to pursue who is arguably a top-five cornerback in the NFL.