Jeff Saturday and Tedy Bruschi agree that the Panthers don't have much to play for and take the Redskins to win on Monday Night Football. (0:43)

CHARLOTTE, N.C. -- "No prisoners. No mercy."

This is the message Josh Norman planned to send in a group text he remains a part of with members of the 2015 Carolina Panthers secondary. The Washington Redskins cornerback wasn't sure when he would send it, only that it would be some time before Monday night's game against his former team at FedEx Field. And he knows everyone will appreciate the fun spirit in which it's intended.

"They know how I am," Norman said with a laugh. "They know how I was at practice. They can just imagine that with a little bit more nitrogen on top."

Norman circled this game on the schedule in late April when he signed with the Redskins two days after Carolina general manager Dave Gettleman rescinded the franchise tag on the 2015 Pro Bowl selection. Not because he wanted "blood and guts"-type revenge like wide receiver Steve Smith did after Gettleman released him following the 2013 season, but because Norman has a bond with the Panthers that goes beyond football. It's a bond he still hasn't fully moved on from, and he's not sure when he will.

"We built something special there," Norman said in an interview with ESPN.com. "We built it up with our bare hands from the bottom to the top. We built up a fierce, competitive-like brotherhood. Last year is when it all came together. We were as thick as thieves.

"That I'm still in a group chat with those guys, that don't mean anything because I'm somewhere different and they're somewhere different. I'm still right with them."

Josh Norman says the Panthers would be in the playoff hunt if they had decided to keep him. Geoff Burke/USA TODAY Sports

Norman, who still has his condo in Charlotte, spent Friday in his hometown of Greenwood, South Carolina, about two hours away, passing out gifts to children and families in need. The former Coastal Carolina star spent his entire life, from high school to college to the NFL, in the Carolinas before the Panthers cut ties with him. As happy as he is with the Redskins, that's not something he can easily get past.

"For anybody that says move on and get over it ... screw you," Norman said. "I'm dealing with it in my own way. I know who I am. I know who I'm playing for.

"At the end of the day, it's not going to change who I am. I'm still from Carolina. I just play for the Washington Redskins."

The breakup

Norman wanted badly to remain at with the Panthers. He was willing to do almost anything short of backing down from what he believed he deserved financially.

That Gettleman didn't consider him a part of the core needed to move forward, Norman said, felt like getting "stabbed in the back."

"I guess money looked so much more enticing to them than they thought of just relationships on the team and what it would do to the camaraderie and to the building up within the system of who we had," Norman said. "Everything comes down to money, so if money is what they wanted, money is what they got."

The Panthers (5-8) remain about $14 million under the salary cap, so they could have found a way to keep Norman for at least this season under the franchise tag.

But Gettleman decided he could make better use of the $13.95 million Norman would have gotten under the franchise tag, perhaps by signing players such as Pro Bowl defensive tackle Kawann Short to a long-term deal. That still hasn't happened.

Rescinding Norman's tag, as Carolina coach Ron Rivera said, was a "bold move." It led to the defending NFC champions opening the season with a pair of rookie starting cornerbacks in James Bradberry and Daryl Worley.

"We built something special there," Josh Norman (24) said of his time in Charlotte. "We built it up with our bare hands from the bottom to the top." Rich Graessle/Icon Sportswire

It left a defense that ranked in the top 10 in the NFL the past three years vulnerable, and opponents took advantage of that during Carolina's 1-5 start.

Norman doesn't get great satisfaction that the Panthers likely won't make the playoffs, but he's pretty sure things would be different if he had been there.

"I knew what I brought to the table," he said. "I knew who I was and how much I was a part of something bigger than just myself."

The Dark Knight

A small Batman statue sat on the top shelf of Norman's locker at Carolina. It was part of the "Dark Knight mode" he went to, particularly when facing challenges such as receivers Odell Beckham Jr. and Dez Bryant.

Norman credits Carolina secondary coach Steve Wilks for unleashing his alter ego.

"When you look at Batman and his whole little belt, his 'batarang' he has around his stomach, Wilks gave me my first tool belt," Norman said.

Much was made last season about whether Norman was a true shutdown corner or a product of Carolina's system that included a lot of zone.

In truth, it was a little bit of both.

But when the Panthers needed to shut down the opponent's best receiver, Norman usually came through. He was at his best against Atlanta's Julio Jones.

In two games against Norman last season, Jones had nine catches for 113 yards and no touchdowns. In 2014, Norman limited Jones to 10 catches for 107 yards and no touchdowns.

Jones had 12 catches for 300 yards and a touchdown in an early-season game against Carolina's young secondary this season, prompting Norman to say, "You get what you pay for."

"That was how I felt at that moment in time when it happened," Norman said. "You're going against a Julio Jones. You just don't put anybody on him. I'm sorry. You can't put just anybody on him.

"I just felt like there was no respect there, and it showed."

Hypothetically speaking

What if the Panthers began the season with Norman? Would the 1-5 start that set the tone for this season have ever happened?

"That's not even a question," Norman said. "You go back and look at the games they lost and how close they were, and how they lost them. Look at that."

Had the Panthers won two of those games, Monday's matchup would have huge playoff implications for both teams with Washington (7-5-1) battling for a wild-card spot.

Odds are Norman would have made a difference in two, maybe three games. During the Panthers' 1-5 start, opposing quarterbacks had a Total Quarterback Rating of 77, the second-highest total in the league.

During that same span, opposing quarterbacks had a 54.3 completion percentage for eight touchdowns and only three interceptions on completions of 15-plus yards.

So when someone suggests Norman has something to prove on Monday night, Norman laughs.

"I already proved myself by going out and getting my worth," said Norman, who got a five-year, $75 million deal from Washington that made him the league's highest-paid cornerback. "It looks like we're going to the playoffs, and I don't know if anybody else is.

"I feel like, for me, it's not something I've got to go out and prove. I've already done that."

But that won't keep Norman from poking a little fun at last year's secondary that got the Panthers to the Super Bowl.

That group remains tight, even though players such as Norman, safety Roman Harper and cornerback Charles Tillman have moved on.

"He isn't the enemy," Carolina safety Tre Boston said of Norman. "He's a longtime friend. That group chat just shows how special that group was."

That won't change regardless of what message Norman sends, though Boston was ready with the reply.

"You respond with the emoji face, smiling," he said.

Norman would expect nothing less.