The Carolina Panthers have a strong secondary, led by Josh Norman. The “Thieves” as they are known in the Carolinas, led the league in interceptions this regular season but the common narrative going around is if there’s one way to handcuff these thieves, it’s with big, strong receivers like Demaryius Thomas.

On Monday, at Super Bowl Opening Night in San Jose, I asked Norman about that narrative.

“You don’t have to worry about Josh Norman, Josh Norman gonna be Josh Norman. Don’t worry about Luke Kuechly, because Luke Kuechly is gonna be Luke Kuechly. Don’t worry about Thomas Davis, Thomas Davis is gonna be Thomas Davis,” he said heating up with emotion. “Oh, and don’t forget about big Star Lotulelei and [Kawann] Short because those guys are definitely menacing foes that are going to be coming off the line.

“And, oh yeah, if you want to play with us, we got Shaq Thompson and you know we have the Thieves back there,” added Norman, getting louder with every word. “Roman Harper, Tre Boston, Kurt Coleman, Cortland Finnegan. Then, you have Charles Johnson on the end out there with Kony Ealy. Come on, man, we have the whole squad so it’s just not that one guy that’s goin’ to make that thing happen for them.”

So, he’s not worried about Demaryius Thomas, then?

“For what? What’s my concern? Why Should I be,” Norman snapped back.

Well, Thomas (6-2, 229)  comes from the same receiver mold as a guy like Julio Jones (6-3, 220) who stole 16 catches for 258 yards and a touchdown from those Thieves this year, including a massive nine for 178 in the Falcons win over the Panthers.  Vincent Jackson (6-5, 230) went for 10 catches 147 yards and a touchdown, Jimmy Graham (6-7, 265), who wants to be a big wide receiver, had eight catches for 140, a washed up Andre Johnson (6-3, 229) put four for 81 and a TD on them, and some rookie named Brandon Coleman (6-6, 225) for the Saints even had four for 73 and a TD.

“Well from what I recall [Jones] only had like 55 yards from me if you want to calculate that,” Norman claimed. “For me, that’s a bad game but for anybody else that’s a great game, so 55 yards is the most a guy has ever had on me in one game. So if you want to go back, you can check the stats, if we get a big receiver I think we love that more so than a small receiver.”

*Looks at stats* *shrugs shoulders*.

Read Demaryius’ response to Norman’s question here