ARE YOU NEW HERE? NOT LOGGED IN? PLEASE TAKE A MOMENT TO REGISTER FOR AN ACCOUNT AND LOGIN TO REMOVE THIS WINDOW
Welcome to PatsFans.com. Do you have an account? If not - please take a moment to register for our forum and experience a much smoother experience with fewer ads, along with no longer having to see this notification window. Also learn about how you can receive a free Patriots T-Shirt from the Patriots Official ProShop by CLICKING HERE. Please enjoy your stay here, and Go Pats!
McCourty was a shutdown CB in college (granted not in the toughest conference, but Butler came from the same conference). He has the potential of being an elite CB. He may never get close to that, but I think his ceiling is higher than Butler's.
From watching both of them closely over 4 years, Butler was more of a shutdown corner. People threw at McCourty. They never threw at Butler. Now, that might be because of the style of play going against UConn and Rutgers defenses. So we can't draw too many conclusions, but I'd say Butler had the better college career.
And, as for the BE, you need to take a look at the WRs in that league. Mardy Gilyard, DJ Woods, Armon Binns, Carlton Mitchell, Marcus Easley, Terrence Jeffers, Harry Douglas, Mario Urrutia, Jonathan Baldwin, Dorin Dickerson, Tim Brown, Mohammed Sanu, Kenny Britt, Tiquan Underwood, Mike Williams, Darius Reynaud...
I'd put those guys up against any league.
FEATURED ADVERTISEMENT
DONATE TO PATSFANS.COM
RECEIVE A FREE PATS T-SHIRT AND SAVE 15% OFF WHEN YOU BUY FROM THE OFFICIAL PROSHOP!
Free T-Shirt & Save 15% Off!
Like Our Site? Please help support our site and server costs by DONATING TO PATSFANS.COM and receive a FREE PATRIOTS T-SHIRT and SAVE 15% off EVERY purchase you make from PatriotsProShop.com. You'll also receive added benefits to your account including Removing All Ads During Your Experience Here At Our Forum.
NEEDED YEARLY SITE DONATIONS: 345 | CURRENT # OF SUBSCRIBED SUPPORTERS: 98
From watching both of them closely over 4 years, Butler was more of a shutdown corner. People threw at McCourty. They never threw at Butler. Now, that might be because of the style of play going against UConn and Rutgers defenses. So we can't draw too many conclusions, but I'd say Butler had the better college career.
And, as for the BE, you need to take a look at the WRs in that league. Mardy Gilyard, DJ Woods, Armon Binns, Carlton Mitchell, Marcus Easley, Terrence Jeffers, Harry Douglas, Mario Urrutia, Jonathan Baldwin, Dorin Dickerson, Tim Brown, Mohammed Sanu, Kenny Britt, Tiquan Underwood, Mike Williams, Darius Reynaud...
I'd put those guys up against any league.
There was a statistical breakdown for McCourty here after he was drafted and QB's success rate throwing in his direction was abismal. QBs may have thrown in his direction, but they rarely made completions at least on the breakdowns I saw.
I found this from a scouting report on McCourty:
Quote:
In the last 38 contests, Rutgers has allowed the opposition to complete 572-of-1,038 passes (55.11 percent) for 7,144 yards, 36 touchdowns and 32 interceptions. Against McCourty, the Scarlet Knights opponents attempted 249 throws, completing just 88 (35.34 percent) for 684 yards and only two scores, an average of 7.77 yards per pass completion. He has allowed just 2.75 yards per pass attempt, the lowest figure of any active player in the Big East Conference.
While those figures are very impressive, they do not tell the entire story of this shutdown cornerback's ability. Against his main pass coverage assignments, McCourty has held those receivers to only 42 receptions for 386 yards on 158 passes targeted into his area, meaning that quarterbacks have completed just 26.58 percent of those tosses and their intended targets were limited to 9.19 yards per pass completion and 2.44 yards per attempt.
Allowing 35.34% completions and 26.58% when the ball was thrown to his main pass coverage assignment and only 2.75 YPA (2.44 YPA against his main coverage assignment) is pretty shutdown to me. I think perceptions on the guy may be off because he did allow some big passes and didn't have a lot of INTs. Those two things probably overshadowed how well he shutdown opposing WRs.
There was a statistical breakdown for McCourty here after he was drafted and QB's success rate throwing in his direction was abismal. QBs may have thrown in his direction, but they rarely made completions at least on the breakdowns I saw.
Allowing 35.34% completions and 26.58% when the ball was thrown to his main pass coverage assignment and only 2.75 YPA (2.44 YPA against his main coverage assignment) is pretty shutdown to me. I think perceptions on the guy may be off because he did allow some big passes and didn't have a lot of INTs. Those two things probably overshadowed how well he shutdown opposing WRs.
Very impressive much better than I thought. I'll have to step back though and say that these stats on the college level--for both Butler and McCourty--mean little. If they were just BE stats, I'd pay a lot more attention. Unfortunately, the BE only has 7 league games per team a year, and some teams like Rutgers fill the schedule with multiple 1-AA games. You can compare Rutgers opponents to the teams that UConn plays (last year UConn played the Big-12, ACC and Notre Dame, and this year, Michigan, SEC and ACC) to Rutgers... well, one team may find it a lot easier to pad the stats.
Time will tell. I hope McCourty is really that good.
Last edited by upstater1; 07-21-2010 at 09:36 AM..
Very impressive much better than I thought. I'll have to step back though and say that these stats on the college level--for both Butler and McCourty--mean little. If they were just BE stats, I'd pay a lot more attention. Unfortunately, the BE only has 7 league games per team a year, and some teams like Rutgers fill the schedule with multiple 1-AA games. You can compare Rutgers opponents to the teams that UConn plays (last year UConn played the Big-12, ACC and Notre Dame, and this year, Michigan, SEC and ACC) to Rutgers... well, one team may find it a lot easier to pad the stats.
Time will tell. I hope McCourty is really that good.
All we can go on is college stats and production for McCourty at this point. If Rutgers played tougher competition, McCourty probably would have been a top 15 pick. I just think based on his college career, he has the ability to be a shutdown CB in this league. But there are players who showed more promise than him who went nowhere and players who showed less and became superstars.
McCourty hasn't played a down in the NFL, and Butler hasn't shown any level of consistency, so (IMO) it's impossible to fairly evaluate either player's career at this point. Also, the Patriots' system seems to result in a lot of wear and tear on the CBs, so the ability to handle pain and injuries over the course of time is something else we'll need to see before we can really come to a strong conclusion.
__________________
"The object in life is not to be on the side of the majority, but to escape finding oneself in the ranks of the insane."
- Marcus Aurelius
There was a statistical breakdown for McCourty here after he was drafted...
Another claim I loved reading from that report was this:
Quote:
While developing his shutdown cornerback skills, McCourty is not only a top-notch coverage defender, but has also excelled playing inside the box. He made 91 of his 236 tackles in run support (38.56 percent) and has proven to be a drive-killer, as he registered an incredible 94 third-down stops and 33 more on fourth-down action (38.60 percent of his plays made resulted in killing the opposition's series).
38+% series ending plays sure sounds like a play maker at CB. Tackling receivers short of the down markers is obviously a rather important skill.
Re: Who'll have a better career? McCourty, Butler
Linear Mode
