Reiss: Malcolm Butler plans to push for an adjustment to his contract

PatsBoy12 said:

Respect. But it seems like everyone is assuming Butler would want a deal of more than three or four years. Why would he deny himself a chance at another pay day. Most players playing well at their positions, outside of QB's maybe, usually have only one or two big pay days in their careers.

Click to expand...

Exactly. Let's not forget that Butler is already 26. He's not signing a lifetime contract, I assure you. And the 4/32 idea isn't "ridiculous"...if anything, it's unrealistically low. Cornerbacks get 10M+ now. It only takes one good year, and he had it. Maybe we don't think he deserves that money, but that's not at all relevant.

I'm expecting a 3 year deal somewhere between 8 and 12 million annually.

Elijah said:

Exactly. Let's not forget that Butler is already 26. He's not signing a lifetime contract, I assure you. And the 4/32 idea isn't "ridiculous"...if anything, it's unrealistically low.

Cornerbacks get 10M+ now. It only takes one good year, and he had it. Maybe we don't think he deserves that money, but that's not at all relevant.

I'm expecting a 3 year deal somewhere between 8 and 12 million annually.

Click to expand...

$8-$12m is a big delta.

In ave per year he is either paid #8th most or #21

Cornerback Contracts and Salaries | Over The Cap

I know less about this kind of stuff than anybody. But one thing I do know is that if Butlers numbers are too high, he will be gone. BB, just doesn't waiver from his grand plan. He has a set number of what is an acceptable amount within the cap. Nobody is bigger than the team. When you have the best QB to ever play the game, making less than half of the JAG QB's in the league, you have 2 choices: (1) Cash in and ship out - 0r- (2) Stay with a perennial winner, make "good money"..... How many times have we seen guys leave and not have the same success in a different system? I like Butler a lot and think he is a valuable asset to the team. I really hope they work something out. I don't blame him if he chooses "cash in". Just my dumbass opinion

robertweathers said:

$8-$12m is a big delta.

In ave per year he is either paid #8th most or #21

Cornerback Contracts and Salaries | Over The Cap

Click to expand...

My bounds were conservative because I really have no idea how this stuff works. Think confidence intervals.

A key point worth considering: the Pats extended UDFA Ryan Allen after two seasons to a mid-market contract when they didn't have to.

So Butler can point to that as evidence they should be negotiating with him.

I like the idea of extending Butler long-term. I feel like guaranteed bonus money is something that he is looking for, and so we can pay him a lower AAV as long as the deal makes sense for both Butler and our long term cap space. He's an important part of the team, let's lock him up at least another 4 years!

Elijah said:

My bounds were conservative because I really have no idea how this stuff works. Think confidence intervals.

Click to expand...

For me that was a galaxy far, far away but yes I understand your point.

VectorPrime said:

If I were Butler and I was offered 6/36 I would laugh and increase my demands. I say offer him 3/30 which will fit alongside the remainder of Brady's window and allow him to get a mega contract with some other team afterwards if he does well.

Click to expand...

i think 5/40-43 gets it done

Rob0729 said:

In one way, he has more leverage than at least Hightower. He can easily afford to hold out the first ten games of the season since he won't be losing that much. Hightower can't because he will lose millions. Butler will lose a few hundred thousand which he will make up ten fold.

Click to expand...

On the flipside, Hightower has already made $7.7M compared to Butler's almost $1M. So High might be in line to lose more, but he's certainly not as desperate for money either.

Last offseason, Butler was disinvited from a few weeks of OTAs because he cut things too close on a plane reservation. Things worked out pretty well afterwards.

That may be context for this year's absence.

Fencer said:

Last offseason, Butler was disinvited from a few weeks of OTAs because he cut things too close on a plane reservation. Things worked out pretty well afterwards.

That may be context for this year's absence.

Click to expand...

Context for what? Malcolm missed his flight again a year later?

There are only 3 out of 32 #1 CBs that make less than $6 mil/year average per OverTheCap.com

Jalen Ramsey Jaguars $23,350,998 $5,837,750 $23,350,998 $5,837,750 100.0% 2020 UFA
Jeremy Lane Seahawks $23,000,000 $5,750,000 $7,000,000 $1,750,000 30.4% 2020 UFA
Coty Sensabaugh

avg of $10 mil/year would be absolute lowest point for Butler I would think, near guys like Talib, Leon Hall, Jimmy Smith, Brandon Carr.. that would put him in the Top 10 CBs.. I can't see Butler's camp going lower than that

We have more bigger fish to fry that have the leverage on their side ( Hightower,Collins). I love Butler but unless he signs a extremely Patriot friendly contract he plays under the current terms. He has absolutely no leverage. Sign for average $7mil/ year or shut up and play.

robertweathers said:

Context for what? Malcolm missed his flight again a year later?

Click to expand...

It's hard to claim that he's hurting the team badly by skipping some OTAs.

First i will link this for reference.

Cornerback Contracts and Salaries | Over The Cap

Here is what I think Butler should be paid. The elite of the elite CBs make about 15-14M a year these days. While that might be desperate teams willing to overpay a little that is what the absolute top of the market is today and we can expect salaries to continue to go up over time as the cap goes up. That is what guys like Revis, Peterson, Norman and Sherman make.

So the question is this "is Butler that good or likely to be that good". Well he generally is not that good right now and i don't think he will ever be top 5 cause he does have certain physical limitations. So the absolute top of the market is not for Butler now or in the future though i think we can expect him to improve just a bit more.

So what was Butler's play worth last year? He made a probowl and i would argue rightly so. He certainly belongs on the short list of considered names worth debating about at the least. I would say most people would say he was top 15 last year overall and arguably top 10 (I put him in the top 10 considering the competition he faced)

Lets see what the 10th highest paid CB made last year... Brandon Carr is #10 on that list and made 10.2M that year.

Looking at players who are established which i think are right there with Butler skill wise though their games might be different (this is now my own personal opinion) I put him with guys like Talib, Jenkins, Flowers and Harris. They make 9.5, 12,5, 9.1 & 8.5M respectively. So lets call it average close to 9.5M wichi is in line with that the #10 best paid CB made last year which fits.

Now lets assume any deal we make with Butler will factor in the cap going up and the longer the deal is the more we can likely save on a per year basis. Generally thought Butller is worth 10M a year now likely to be worth 12-13M in 5 years due to increased skill and raising of the cap.

So to pay him a fair deal for what he is worth would look like 9.5, 10, 11, 12, 12.5 or averaging out to 5 years 5 years 55M (11 per year). However we do have leverage to hold him to a little less but i think the more the Pats play ball with Butler the more likely he is to play ball with the Pats. Pay him a little more now to pay less later and give him more guaranteed to make the overall salary less.

right now he lets say he has a 3 yr deal where the 3rd year is 15m (franchise tag) the Pats will not pay 15 M so we get him cheap for 2 years if we play hard ball then he probably goes to seek top market since we didn't pay him and probably has hard feelings over it.

BUSTAMOVE said:

We have more bigger fish to fry that have the leverage on their side ( Hightower,Collins). I love Butler but unless he signs a extremely Patriot friendly contract he plays under the current terms. He has absolutely no leverage. Sign for average $7mil/ year or shut up and play.

Click to expand...

That means he'd be the 26th highest paid CB.. almost paid as a #2.. i don't think they would view that as reasonable, hes a lot better than that

3/30 and he gets a big payday afterwards at 29 years old.

give the man 2 million under the table just for the interception

I feel like Malcolm is the type of guy who realizes how incredibly unlikely it was for him to be in the position he's in, and just wants a little financial security for himself and his family. I would be surprised if he really wanted top dollar.

Ultimately, I think he will get a modest extension that keeps him here for the next 3-4 years and pays him around $6m a year. I could be way off base but that's the sense I get of the situation.

I always forget butler is already 26, which gives the patse ven more leverage. I think just a 2 year deal would make sense no? After all it sounds like Butler just wants a change to his current contract to be more appropriately compensated, doesn't sound like he's looking for the big payday right now. Give him 2 years 14 mil and tell him to get his ass to practice?