What is your take on Malcolm Butler ?

sambam94 · Mar 15, 2015

maybe try him as 3rd down back

Don_the_patfan · Mar 15, 2015

hwc said:
No that's not IT.

He made four great plays in the second half of the SuperBowl when he replaced Arrington. He had Kearse one-on-one on most of those plays.

PLAY 1: a perfect reaching pass breakup on Kearse

PLAY 2: a heady play to trip Kearse and prevent a long gain

PLAY 3: a perfect laid out pass breakup on the bomb to Kearse down the sideline (Kearse caught the rebound when the safety was late and didn't jumped over instead of playing the ball).

PLAY 4: Game winning interception

In addition to these, NFL FILMS caught him battling Kearse to a standoff in press coverage at the line.

Preceding that, he made enough plays in training camp to make the 53 man roster the deepest secondary in the NFL as an UDRFA. Throughout the season, he made enough plays to consistently make the active game day roster in front of last years starter at CB, Dennard.

The interception to win the SuperBowl was, indeed, a great play, but to suggest that is the some total of his effective play is very wide of the mark.

If he continues on hs current trajectory through the off season and training camp, I think that he will likely nail down a starting CB slot.

Sounds like the job Arrington did against Hilton when we played the Colts. Is Arrington a #1 or #2 corner? Point I am trying to make is he is an unknown and while there's a good chance he turns into a #1 or #2 corner there's always a good chance he is nothing more then an Arrington if even that. You may have confidence he can cover Brandon Marshall next season, I dont. I haven't seen enough to say that.

Don_the_patfan · Mar 15, 2015

Schmo said:
"That's it"? Way to identify yourself as someone who doesn't have any knowledge of the situation.

I come here to get enlightened by Jo Schmo.

hwc · Mar 15, 2015

PatsWickedPissah said:
My take is that Butler should be converted to safety.

I must be missing the smiley face! From the four plays he made in the SuperBowl, Butler appears to have a knack for breaking up passes in man coverage. Why would you move him to safety?

Amazon has the Blu-Ray for under $20 bucks. It has NFL FILMS slo-mo of three of Butler's plays (they don't have the trip that he got away with - the fourth outstanding play). Convert him to safety? Why?

hwc · Mar 15, 2015

Don_the_patfan said:
Sounds like the job Arrington did against Hilton when we played the Colts. Is Arrington a #1 or #2 corner? Point I am trying to make is he is an unknown and while there's a good chance he turns into a #1 or #2 corner there's always a good chance he is nothing more then an Arrington if even that. You may have confidence he can cover Brandon Marshall next season, I dont. I haven't seen enough to say that.

I don't know anything about #1 or #2 corners. I don't even know what that means in a Belichick defense? Did Browner stop being a #2 CB when he lined up in the slot on Chris Mathews in the Super Bowl? Honestly, I let Belichick figure out the matchups as part of his game planning.

I just believe that Butler's performance on the field has earned him more playing time and the opportunity to compete for a starting CB position on the team. If he continues to perform well in the offseason and training camp, I think he'll be an opening day starter at CB. On the outside, most likely.

A lot can change between now and September, but if the NFL season started tonight, I think the Pats would start Logan Ryan, Malcolm Butler, and Kyle Arrington at CB..

Bruins29 · Mar 15, 2015

Don_the_patfan said:
there's always a good chance he is nothing more then an Arrington.

You mean Butler could become an excellent slot CB and Special Team ace. If so, sign me up!

Don_the_patfan · Mar 15, 2015

Bruins29 said:
You mean Butler could become an excellent slot CB and Special Team ace. If so, sign me up!

Still doesn't address the loss of Revis, Browner. Look I hope he is the next Ty Law. All I am saying is he is an unknown that's it. Obviously a lot of you are encouraged by his play and won't accept the possibility he may not work out. I hope Butler is a star at CB. I am not there yet. I thought Ras I Dowling looked good at the end of his first year, thought he would be one of our top CB based on what I saw. I thought McCourty was the next star at corner for us, he was converted to safety. I will not yet make that assumption yet on Butler past history of this team at that position has taught me that.

If I had to guess I would say Logan Ryan and Denard are our top corners going into next season. But a long way until september and let's hope Butler shines and can be the one shutting Brandon Marshall and the likes of him in the AFC East down. I just don't see it yet.

hwc · Mar 15, 2015

Don_the_patfan said:
Still doesn't address the loss of Revis, Browner.

I don't think you will address the loss of Revis and Butler. The Pats will have to be a different defense next year. For example, what they give up in a physical jam at the line CB in Browner, they may make up by not giving up 19 first downs on holding and pass interference penalties from a single corner.

Maybe they gain a little something by not giving up sloppy brain dead TD drives in the final seconds of the first half of games.

Jimke · Mar 15, 2015

patfanken said:
That's an incredibly pessimistic view of our defense, Jim. There are a lot of teams that would love to have the 8 guys we currently have on our secondary's roster....and that's just in March.

Besides passing yardage has noting to do with how your defense s doing. You just have to go back to the 2011 D. That was a historically bad defense if you determine it by yardage alone. A secondary so thin Edelman had to play a key role, McCourty was having his worst year as a pro, and Chung was the best player in your secondary. It's no coincidence that it ranked 16th in scoring D, and ended up being the 3rd best D in the playoffs. Our front 7 and back 4 are infinitely better now. There is no need to be so pessimistic

Prior to Talib and Revis , the Patriots gave up a lot of passing yardage. The other teams seemed to gain
at will but were stopped in scoring territory. I expect this will happen again and the Patriots will have
more wins than losses. I just don't know if the defense is good enough to win the AFC and Superboowl again.

PatsWickedPissah · Mar 15, 2015

IT ISN'T GOOD ENOUGH...right now in March

hwc · Mar 15, 2015

Norv Turner sez:

"SuperBowl? Talking about the SuperBowl is premature. We don't even have a team yet...."

Schmo · Mar 15, 2015

Don_the_patfan said:
I come here to get enlightened by Jo Schmo.

From your display, you could apparently take a stroll and be enlightened by a sidewalk. Excuse me if I don't take educating you on football as a complement.

PatsWickedPissah · Mar 15, 2015

hwc said:
I must be missing the smiley face! From the four plays he made in the SuperBowl, Butler appears to have a knack for breaking up passes in man coverage. Why would you move him to safety?

Amazon has the Blu-Ray for under $20 bucks. It has NFL FILMS slo-mo of three of Butler's plays (they don't have the trip that he got away with - the fourth outstanding play). Convert him to safety? Why?

No smiley. My bad.
I was baiting Ken who went ballistic over the stupid threads here advocating Butler to the safety position.

1960Pats · Mar 15, 2015

pheenix11 said:
I was going to post the same thing. Many people thought Brady was a fluke at first too.

Good players have a funny way of making their own "luck".

I used to call those fans Bledsholes.

Canuck · Mar 15, 2015

I think he was a raw rookie who had a lot to learn to be a NFL CB. From what he showed in the SB, it wouldn't surprise me if Bill made him a starting CB this year.

Brady6 · Mar 15, 2015

Not sure why everyone sees Butler as slot CB when was much better on the outside both last season and in college. I think whenever a CB is under 6'0" people automatically assume he is a slot CB. Butler has a ceiling of Brett Grimes and a basement of being out of the NFL by week 10 of next season. In the preseason though the kid played #1 CB and he made plays all day everyday.

PatsWickedPissah · Mar 15, 2015

1960Pats said:
I used to call those fans Bledsholes.

No

Bledsoe Krishnas

I was a Brady's Lady

IllegalContact · Mar 16, 2015

he can make plays.......just a matter if he can be effective consistently if he plays 50+ plays a game as opposed to the 15 or so he played

luuked · Mar 16, 2015

hwc said:
PLAY 2: a heady play to trip Kearse and prevent a long gain

Don't get me wrong I am happy with Butler, but if a ref throws a flag for that trip there is a good chance we won't come back to win the game. I would not necessarily put that into the plus column especially because he got burned on that play and got away with it.

Concussion Protocol · Mar 16, 2015

Weren't we having this conversation last year about Jamie Collins? Quiet rookie season followed by a breakout game in the playoffs? Sometimes the breakout game is a fluke, sometimes it's much more than that. Either way, to label Butler's SB49 performance as "one good play" is ridiculous. He had a great game on the biggest stage. As for his overall ability, let me throw this out there: If Malcolm Butler came from a DII school and ran a horrible 4.62 40 on his pro day, how insanely good must he have looked on film and in other drills to still be on the Patriots' radar? I'm optimistic, and I bet BB is too.

What is your take on Malcolm Butler ?

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