Why didn't the Panthers trade Josh Norman? – NBCSports.com 
AP
The massive contract given by Washington to former Carolina cornerback Josh Norman shows that, right or wrong, his new team values Norman much more than his old team did. The next question is whether Carolina could have gotten value for Norman in trade.
It’s unknown whether trade talks happened between the Panthers and any other team. The fact that the Panthers let Norman walk suggests that there was no offer ever on the table that would have been better than what the Panthers would get via the compensatory draft process in 2017.
While few fully understand the convoluted formula that determines who gets what and how via the compensatory pick process, losing a key player under the age of 30 loosely translates to a third-round selection the following year. Any trade now would have had to be better than that to get the Panthers to do anything other than let Norman leave, hopeful that he’d sign a new deal before May 12, the deadline for free-agency moves to count toward the compensatory draft-pick formula.
Still, the package that Washington provided to Norman invites speculation as to whether Washington would have coughed up a third-round pick this year, or more, in order to trade for Norman. Dan Snyder and company clearly see something in Norman that the team that had Norman in the building and on the field for four seasons didn’t, and that attitude may have translated to significant 2016 draft-pick compensation for Carolina.
