People are exaggerating here about lethargy. Brady has yelled at a lot of people this year, including at Wes Welker. Wouldn't read too much into it. Butler has, as Belichick stated, needed to carry his consistency from practice to games. He has lost his fundamentals at times. But make no mistake. Darius is not lethargic, he's a very hard worker.
How people forget that Reiss was touting him all offseason as the hardest working and most diligent Patriot. No one remembers this? Butler was spending all day working hard at Foxboro in the offseason.
My read is different from many of you because I watched a lot of him at UConn and I think his play from UConn has carried over to the NFL. My reading is totally opposite most people here.
I think Darius is a playmaker and he has great playmaking ability. That's what he brings to the team. He's more like Terrell Buckley than he is Jonathan Wilhite. I know people see him stride for stride and in position to make a play but failing to, but if he sticks around, I bet you'll see a different side in the future. Darius has always had good ball skills, makes the incredible acrobatic interception, but too often gets lost and bites on receiver moves. He's out of position a lot. This is the exact opposite problem that most people see in him.
I tend to think that Belichick is requiring him to stay more disciplined, to not break down as quickly, because of Darius's tendency to bite on plays. And Darius needs this. He doesn't need to learn to make plays on the ball. That comes naturally to him. But having to stay back to make sure he doesn't bite has caused him to lose aggressiveness this season that he had last year. That's the difference.
It remains to be seen whether he can harness his natural ball abilities by becoming more Asante Samuel than Terrell Buckley. That's exactly what Belichick wants with him. If Belichick wanted, he could have a Terrell Buckley type player on the field tomorrow. But it takes a while to become an Asante Samuel.
