Falcons deny their reported interest in cornerback Josh Norman

It was a surprise to see the Falcons linked to cornerback Josh Norman, and significantly less surprising to see them deny that interest.

Dimitroff says a lot of teams were mentioned in the reports about Norman. They are not interested.

— Jeanna (@jeannathomas) April 21, 2016

It's possible this denial is not sincere, but given that this was never a particularly logical move for the Falcons in the first place, I'll choose to believe it.

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Josh Norman figured to have a hot market after the Carolina Panthers rescinded his franchise tag, but I certainly didn't expect the Atlanta Falcons to be one of his suitors.

#Falcons in on CB Josh Norman along w/ #49ers, #Bucs, #Dolphins & #Bears. Bidding likely to get north of CB Janoris Jenkins (5 yr, $62.5M)

— Jason Cole (@JasonColeBR) April 21, 2016

This isn't to say that Norman would be a poor fit for the Falcons, because he's a stellar cornerback who could mesh well with Desmond Trufant, Robert Alford, and (eventually) Jalen Collins, forming arguably the most dominant set of cornerbacks in the NFL. Norman's coverage and playmaking ability would be welcome on this defense, especially if they can get enough out of their front seven to ease the pressure on the secondary.

The problem is that he's 28 years old, reportedly wants a massive contract offering north of $14 million per year, and the Falcons would have be pretty creative about the structure to get him in the fold. None of that would necessarily stop the team from signing him, but I'm extremely skeptical about A) how heavily they'll pursue him and B) whether they'd offer enough money and opportunity to make Atlanta the most attractive destination on his list. If Norman landed with the Falcons, my guess would be that this will be Robert Alford's last year in Atlanta, but that's getting way ahead of ourselves.

I wasn't sure whether to trust Jason Cole about Alex Mack, and he was dead on in that instance, so perhaps there's more here than I'm thinking. I do tend to think the interest in this case might be nothing more significant than a phone call, because it would seem to fly in the face of everything Atlanta's done this offseason to pursue someone like Norman, especially with their limited cap space remaining in 2016. Either way, it's noteworthy that the Falcons are showing interest at all, and we'll see if Norman comes close to landing in Atlanta.