One of the biggest surprises of Jacksonville Jaguars’ 2018 offseason was their acquisition of guard Andrew Norwell. The team wasn’t on his radar during the tampering period, which allowed them to swoop in with little speculation to land him.
Apparently, Jags fans weren’t the only ones shocked by Norwell’s addition to the team as Justin Pugh, who was at the time a free agent guard and former player under Tom Coughlin and Doug Marrone, was also surprised. In a recent interview on Bleacher Report’s Simms and Lefkoe Podcast, Pugh admitted to hosts Chris Simms and Adam Lefkoe that he was a little bitter about Norwell getting paid a bit more than him on the open market, and it especially upset him that his big contract came from two coaches who knew him well.
“Not only [did Norwell getting a better deal upset me], it was who paid him,” Pugh said to Simms and Lefkoe. “The Jags paid him, Tom Coughlin paid him, Doug Marrone paid him. All of my guys that were with me with the Giants and at Syracuse. [The coaches] who were my guys also didn’t want me. So I was like ‘wait, so the Giants who drafted me didn’t want me and the guys that know me the best in Jacksonville didn’t want me’. I was like ‘damn, does anyone want me?'”
Pugh also revealed that timing had something to do with the contract discrepancy, as Norwell was healthier than him heading into free agency. Thankfully after the market had settled a bit, the Arizona Cardinals came in and signed Pugh and the rest is history.
In all honesty, we were one of many sites who thought Pugh would’ve been a target for the Jags last season, too. But Tom Coughlin values availability, and Pugh had missed nine games in the three seasons prior to becoming a free agent. By comparison, Norwell missed only three in that same time span. It’s also worth noting that Norwell’s Pro Football Focus grade in 2018 was an underwhelming 66.7, which was still much better than Pugh’s grade of 50.7 despite both ending the season on injured reserve.
