Q&A with Carolina cornerback Josh Norman

NORMAN'S OPENING FREESTYLE STATEMENT: "Julio! My man. I'm in here bumping his song. Listening to him. Getting right. From Young Scooter. 'I got the Dirty Birds calling me Julio.' Got to get my mind right for it. I think it's one of my toughest, most competitive opponents that I look forward to each and every year. He's always at the top. He's the No. 1 wide receiver in the league right now in yards and everything. I'm the No. 1 corner. We're both NFC South and I think that's going to be a game to watch."

Q: What’s it like being 12-0 and vying for the No. 1 seed for the playoffs?

A: "Well, we are blessed. We are blessed and fortunate enough to be in the position that we are in. I think we don't take that for granted. Nor, do we take it lightly. But it's a lot of hard work that we put in during the week. Just maintaining ourselves, discipline football that we play. Understanding our opponents and who we have to face. We do a good job working for them that week."

Q: What’s been key to your development to ascend to being the No. 1 corner?

A: "Just through hard work and dedication to may craft and know that God has a truly higher purpose in my life. In time it would be revealed and that's when I was to show myself worthy of being in this spot. Once I was able to get past all of the distractions and setbacks, I got my shot to step onto the field. Once I got my shot to step onto the field, I never came off. I've just ascended and have meet every expectation. I just pushed through that roof and continued to climb and climb higher each game. Finally, I was getting notice. Once I got notice, then it was like hey, let's get written about. Then it was just to continue (to play) out every game. Then I went higher and higher through my elevation. Just knowing that and understanding what got me there, that's through hard work and dedication to my craft."

Q: What did you mean by the Julio completes me comment?

A: "Yeah, it was one of those things where you want a great battle. You don't want to go out there and feel like you're wasting your time on the football field or you're just out there kicking dirt. You want to actually be involved in the game. You want to do something. You want to push yourself to the wildest dream that you can every expect yourself to go. You want a sweet battle. It's almost as if you want to go into it, not with somebody handing you something, but you want somebody to work at it. Once you work at it, there is nothing greater in life than when you work and then you become successful. You cherish it more. You value it more. I think he is a guy that gives me that ultimate challenge to where I can say, man, every corner, every turn, he's so explosive so I've just got to take it a notch higher to try to combat that. He pushes you to your wildest dreams being imaginable. It's kind of one of those things where I love the competition. I'm excited for it. I'm ready. I'm anxious. I'm pumped. I don't know how he feels about it. I really don't care. I just know how I feel about it. That's where I'm at with it. We'll see what it looks like on Sunday."

Q: Is Julio Jones the best receiver in the league?

A: "His numbers say he is. Is he not leading the league in receiver yards at this point? Yes, I think that goes to say what kind of guy he is. That goes to say what kind of player he is. So, if that's the case, then, man, that's going to be awesome. That's going to be fun. We are both in the NFC South. We see each other twice a year. I'm pretty sure he's starting to catch on to what I like to do and I'm trying to catch on to what he likes to do and we both will just battle. He's going to have some good plays and I'm going to have some good plays. It's just going to be interesting to see. Just get your seat ready and watch it."

Q: Do you feel like you’ve shut him down?

A: "I feel like I've played good defense. I feel like my team as a whole did the job that we were supposed to do on my opponent for that week. Whatever those numbers are, those numbers are. At the end of the day, if that's what you want to take out of it, you take that out of it. But I'm out here to do a job and that's to stop the other guy that's in front of me. If I can do that and win on that day, we'll take it. If not, we'll come back and go to the drawing board and look and see what we can do better. At the end of the day, this is a football team and not a one individual game. I think we'll have our individual battles as you will see. Ultimately, we are trying to get a team win."

Q: Will you shadow Julio Jones?

A: "(Norman sounds offended by the question.) Did I shadow him last year?"

Q: Just asking about this year.

A: "Yeah, but I'm pretty sure you watched what we been doing lately. If you noticed, I shadowed him last year and I've shadowed every other receiver this year. He's No. 1 so I would think obviously you think we would do the same thing with him."

Q: How’s Cam Newton’s development from your view?

A: "Cam is Cam. The guy is a heck of an athlete. The man is obviously every year he's growing into the something better than the previous year. This year is he's a MVP caliber quarterback that definitely has to be at the top of his class and game based on (how) he's playing. He's made some crucial big plays that's notable for an MVP candidate. Those plays right there, you just don't make every day without working at them. He works at them and you can see that (transferring) to the games. On that big fourth-and-5, he stepped up and didn't see, almost got tackled. But he released the ball with the timing enough to know that somebody was chasing him, out to Greg Olsen for the fourth-and-5. That kept the drive going. Then he ended up going out and have a touchdown pass to Jerricho Cotchery. That's big time playing right there. At the end of the day, that elevation of him you could see it coming week end and week out."

Q: Do you offer him end zone dance tips?

A: "Everybody has their own way of doing things. Everybody is a different personality. He dance how he wants to dance and we dance how we want to dance. I don't think nobody offers each other no dance tips. We play a lot of music in the locker room and everybody be cutting the rug on their own. But at the end of the day, that's the type of personalities that we have in here. Everybody has their own thing, the own swag and vibe. I don't take nothing away from him and he doesn't take nothing away from us. …I we catch on, we catch on. If we don't, then we do our own thing. That's just how we roll. That's what it is."

Q: What have you seen of Matt Ryan on film?

A: "Matt Ryan is a good quarterback. He's a real good quarterback. He's a streaky guy. Matt Ryan likes to do a lot of things and make his completions. He's an accurate quarterback. He steps up in the pocket well. He has a presence about him that he's out there to make a play. He looks for his guys and he makes things happen. He's a good quarterback. He really is."

Q: Which movie character are you going to be on the field this week?

A: "I have no idea. I don't know until that Saturday comes. Saturday at night I usually pop in. My choices are …I don't know. This is a big game, so I'll have to come pretty big."

Q: Who were you last week against the Saints?

A: "Last week against the Saints? I was one of the Avengers. … but I think that has played itself out. I've got to be somebody else."