What do you want the Pats to do with Butler?

[Huckleberry1]

I left off an important part at the end of the post. It's since been edited.

Yep, exactly how I see it. If they do then they are going to have a great shot at #6. I generally don't put my predictions past returning to the final four and if they stay relatively healthy they have a pretty clear shot at that. Winning the Super Bowl almost always requires some element of luck during the playoffs but they are building a team that will be very hard to beat in the tournament.

 

[They_Hate_We]

#11 is a pipe dream. We've loaded the offense, let's load the secondary as well. I'm not saying its gonna be 2007 all over again, but we're gonna put some numbers up and a lot of teams are going to be playing catch up.
Plus the NFC south is LOADED with quarterbacks. Let's keep him for 1 more year at least.

 

[Huckleberry1]

You are living in the past, the Patriots have something 30 million in cap space. In past years, the Patriots have gone into the draft with 5 million in cap space.

That doesn't mean they should hand out deals they don't believe make sense. I would love to see Butler here the next four seasons but I wouldn't just cave and give him what he wants because he wants it.

Look at this seasons cap and free agency and look who has done the most to upgrade their team, imo it's the Patriots, and so far I don't see where any of their competition have made the moves necessary to even stay up with them:

Pittsburgh-re-signed Landry Jones, signed Justin Hunter, re-signed Antonio Brown, tagged LeVeon Bell. Lost Timmons and Wheaton.

Posted accidentally before I finished but a thread on this may actually be better than simply my take. In short I think the Patriots have pulled away significantly from the rest of the league during this period.

 

[mosslost]

How can he be if the Saints don't even know if they can meet his demands?

good point. But I think the "win wink" deal was basically, IF you come to terms with him we will take 32 back....

 

[mosslost]

he is part of the Cooks deal.

@Nunchucks You disagree with what now?

 

[Kontradiction]

Yep, exactly how I see it. If they do then they are going to have a great shot at #6. I generally don't put my predictions past returning to the final four and if they stay relatively healthy they have a pretty clear shot at that. Winning the Super Bowl almost always requires some element of luck during the playoffs but they are building a team that will be very hard to beat in the tournament.

Honestly, if they retain Butler for one more year, I'd think long and hard about throwing him in as the nickel corner in many situations and easing Jones in as the dime corner. A starting CB trio of Gilmore, Rowe (with safety help up top some of the time), and Butler in the slot is essentially a no fly zone... especially with McCourty cleaning things up deep. Chung comes down to take on the TE and Harmon provides assistance to Gilmore when needed. Either way, though, putting Butler at nickel effectively nullifies the slot WR on many squads and puts the three best corners in the best situations for them on the field at the same time.

 

[GoBlue]

I wouldn't lose any sleep over Butler leaving. He's better than some teams DB's, but not a guy the Patriots have to keep.
I would never pay him over the ave of all the leagues DB's.

 

[mosslost]

good point. But I think the "win wink" deal was basically, IF you come to terms with him we will take 32 back....

Maybe, just maybe, the Saints will NOT be able to close this deal for some reason and we get Butler back too???

 

[brdmaverick]

If they can keep him under the RFA that would be ideal for the team.

If he works out a deal with a team I say match as long as it's no more than $10 mil per year.

 

[Huckleberry1]

Maybe, just maybe, the Saints will NOT be able to close this deal for some reason and we get Butler back too???

Imo that's more than likely if Butler is looking for UFA top dollar. He's a very good CB but he's not going to get that kind of money until he's a UFA.

 

[UGAPatsfan]

Can't keep him now...too much locker room risk

 

[Kontradiction]

Can't keep him now...too much locker room risk

That's a load of crap.

 

[Huckleberry1]

Maybe, just maybe, the Saints will NOT be able to close this deal for some reason and we get Butler back too???

Is it me or are you actually having a discussion with yourself?

 

[Urgent]

...fascinating that, in the poll above the question asked is:
What do you want the Pats to do with Butler?
And there is an option for the 11th and 32nd pick, and currently as many people responded "I want 32" as "I want 11"

 

[Nunchucks]

@Nunchucks You disagree with what now?

Cooks and Butler are completely separate entities. They may have discussed it, but I think the Cooks trade stands on its own.

 

[unoriginal]

Cooks and Butler are completely separate entities. They may have discussed it, but I think the Cooks trade stands on its own.

Payton just now heavily implied Butler is a part of the deal when he said Cooks was traded to get better on defense.

 

[GodBrady]

I'd rather they keep him. Brady is 40. Belichick is 64. These guys aren't going to be around forever. I would rather they load up and finish strong at this point.

Yes, Butler will fetch a compensation pick, but there are a couple of issues with that. First of all, the compensation pick won't come until 2019. That means that player might not contribute until 2020 or 2021.

Second of all, compensation picks aren't guaranteed. If we sign a player to a comparable contract in free agency next offseason, we don't get the pick. So in that respect, it limits flexibility. Plus, it's not guarantee it will be a third round pick. Very few players net a third round compensation pick. More likely, it would be a 4th... and pick at the very end of the 4th round.

Butler is a very good corner, and this team is so strong, I hate the idea of taking talent away from it. I'm usually okay with letting players leave for compensation picks, but Butler is making pittance this year and so it's a bit of a unique situation.

I understand the intricacies of roster-building and the need for young, cost-controlled talent very well... but trading Butler seems wrong, it seems akin to prospect hoarding in baseball. I hope they keep Butler, but I fully-expect them to trade him to NO for #32. As others have said, I'm convinced the trade parameters were in place at the time of the Cooks deal.

 

[GodBrady]

Cooks and Butler are completely separate entities. They may have discussed it, but I think the Cooks trade stands on its own.

Okay, you may believe that, but the majority of the evidence points to a trade already being worked out in advance.

It makes too much sense. The Saints would've had to pay Cooks a roster bonus if they hadn't traded him when they did. The Patriots couldn't trade Butler because he hadn't signed his tender yet. There are very compelling and obvious reasons for them having to break this up into two separate trades.

 

[GodBrady]

Payton just now heavily implied Butler is a part of the deal when he said Cooks was traded to get better on defense.

Although he also said, "...and we'll be able to look at it three years down the road with what we're able to do with the first-round pick and then also the additional third-round pick."

That's a bit of a strange comment, considering many think they're flipping the first round pick back to NE when/if they acquire Butler.

 

[UGAPatsfan]

...fascinating that, in the poll above the question asked is:
What do you want the Pats to do with Butler?
And there is an option for the 11th and 32nd pick, and currently as many people responded "I want 32" as "I want 11"

Because logical minds don't believe #11 is realistic