{"id":130766,"date":"2022-03-17T09:47:10","date_gmt":"2022-03-17T13:47:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/?p=130766"},"modified":"2022-03-17T09:47:10","modified_gmt":"2022-03-17T13:47:10","slug":"andrew-norwell-signs-washington-commanders","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/2022\/03\/17\/andrew-norwell-signs-washington-commanders\/","title":{"rendered":"Andrew Norwell Signs With the Washington Commanders"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Free-agent offensive guard Andrew Norwell has signed with the Washington Commanders. The agreement removes one of the top interior linemen off the open market.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">The Washington <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/Commanders?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">#Commanders<\/a> are expected to sign former <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/Jaguars?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">#Jaguars<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/Panthers?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">#Panthers<\/a> guard Andrew Norwell\u00a0, source said. They are close on a deal. He fills a big void on the offensive line.<\/p>\n<p>&mdash; Ian Rapoport (@RapSheet) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/RapSheet\/status\/1504453825566056452?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">March 17, 2022<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<h2>Andrew Norwell, Washington Commanders, Agree to Deal<\/h2>\n<p>Being a free agent is not a new process for Norwell. In 2018, he was considered the highest-rated offensive lineman in that year&#8217;s free-agent class. The <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/category\/nfl-teams\/jaguars\/\" target=\"_self\">Jacksonville Jaguars<\/a> won a fierce bidding war for Norwell&#8217;s services. The move to Jacksonville surprised many NFL Insiders. It was widely assumed that <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cbssports.com\/nfl\/news\/nfl-free-agency-2018-where-do-the-giants-turn-after-losing-out-on-andrew-norwell\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Norwell would sign<\/a> with the <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/category\/nfl-teams\/giants\/\" target=\"_self\">New York Giants<\/a> at the start of free agency.<\/p>\n<p>Norwell&#8217;s original deal ran through 2022, but the Jags reconstructed his contract before the 2021 season. It became a one-year deal that allowed Norwell to become an unrestricted free agent this off-season.<\/p>\n<p>Coming out of Cincinnati, OH, he was considered <a href=\"https:\/\/247sports.com\/Player\/Andrew-Norwell-1143\/college-22552\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">a four-star recruit<\/a> and selected to play football at Ohio State. During his four seasons, the Buckeyes offensive line went from being the worst in the Big 10 to the conference&#8217;s best unit. Norwell split his starting time at the left guard and left tackle positions. Before he graduated from school, Norwell would earn consecutive All-Big 10 Conference honors.<\/p>\n<p>The Ohio State guard <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/2020\/09\/10\/carolina-panthers-all-decade-team-offense\/\" target=\"_self\">signed as an undrafted free agent<\/a> with the <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/category\/nfl-teams\/panthers\/\" target=\"_self\">Carolina Panthers<\/a> in 2014. Norwell has undoubtedly established himself as one of the top undrafted players in modern NFL history. He quickly became a mainstay on the Panthers starting offensive line after he earned a roster spot in the preseason. According to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.pff.com\/news\/2017-pff-nfl-all-pro-team\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Pro Football Focus (PFF)<\/a>, Norwell was the only NFL offensive linemen not to allow a sack or quarterback hit in the 2017 season. His outstanding play earned him First-Team All-Pro honors.<\/p>\n<p>Since joining the Jaguars, Norwell has been the <a href=\"https:\/\/jaguarswire.usatoday.com\/2022\/01\/28\/pff-lists-andrew-norwell-as-a-free-agent-the-jags-cant-afford-to-lose\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">standard of quality play<\/a> expected from an interior lineman. He played 57 games for the franchise. Norwell has earned high-efficiency grades because of the low amount of penalties called on him and the lack of blown blocking assignments. For his career, PFF has graded Norwell an 80.7 for pass-blocking and 71.5 for run-blocking. This ranking places him near the top as one of the league&#8217;s best guards.<\/p>\n<p>Main Photo<\/p>\n<p><a id=\"Gag-M8JnT2F-azz2WcOOvA\" class=\"gie-single\" style=\"color: #a7a7a7; text-decoration: none; font-weight: normal !important; border: none; display: inline-block;\" href=\"http:\/\/www.gettyimages.com\/detail\/1237631768\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Embed from Getty Images<\/a><script>window.gie=window.gie||function(c){(gie.q=gie.q||[]).push(c)};gie(function(){gie.widgets.load({id:'Gag-M8JnT2F-azz2WcOOvA',sig:'Lmc94j0uFypxE8vPDEwxI6d8RniDmSflZ1q-bQFKKe8=',w:'594px',h:'396px',items:'1237631768',caption: true ,tld:'com',is360: false })});<\/script><script src='\/\/embed-cdn.gettyimages.com\/widgets.js' charset='utf-8' async><\/script><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Free-agent Andrew Norwell has signed with the Blank. The move removes one of the top interior offensive linemen on the open market.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2802,"featured_media":131318,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"1646787600","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"Andrew Norwell free agent stub","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"1","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"300","footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[8848,1970],"class_list":["post-130766","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-jaguars","tag-2022-nfl-free-agency","tag-andrew-norwell"],"modified_by":"David Latham, Managing Editor","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/130766","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2802"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=130766"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/130766\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/131318"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=130766"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=130766"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=130766"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}