I DON'T CARE!!!!!! In three weeks my long term Pats worries will narrow to 16 regular season games and the playoffs. To the best of my knowledge, Malcolm Bulter will be on that team, so what comes after the 2017 season will have little meaning to me until after the last game the Pats play.
He'll either sign a deal with the Pats or sign with another team. Those are the only two alternatives, and neither will affect what the Pats put on the field THIS year. The fact is that some guys are going to move on. ,and some are going to stay. It happens EVERY year. It's that simple and no amount of speculation and threads are going to change it.
Unless you are in total rebuild mode, a la the Jets, EVERY season is its own little entity, almost independent from every other year. The chemistry of the team will be different no matter how hard you try because usually about 30% of the roster will be different from year to year. Every year the good luck and bad luck ratio changes. The Pats had a league leading injury hit in 2015, and had one of the lowest, just a year later.
In 2015 the Pats lost their top 3 CB's and we had no idea that would work out. After this season, we will have at least 4 of the 5 under our control (Gilmore, SJones, JJones and Rowe - I'm not sure about Colman). So comparing the 2 seasons, in 2018, even if we lose Butler, the CB position will have a lot fewer quesition than we had in 2015
Frankly I'm too old to waste any more time on Butler's future until something happens. Which is kind of ironic, given the amount of time I just spent with this rant.