Malcolm Butler Mega Thread

lancerman · Feb 5, 2018

AndyJohnson said:
What do most people think it is?

1. Weed.
2. He missed a flight
3. He missed a meeting
4. Belichick didn't think he recovered enough to play in the game.

Either way, if it's any of those, there's no reason to not throw out some packages with Butler in them to see if they can do better after their current schemes were getting torched.

billikens · Feb 5, 2018

Chris Stevenson said:
Do you know how many times i have seen butler whiff this year? It is not 2015,

This was the 2017 season. Live in the present. Too many things clearly tilted away from justifying using the guy, skill set and match ups alone. Whoever took out torrey smith, did butler’s would be assignment.

Sure, you have a point. But Butler is a very good tackler in the present - he was a starting cornerback this season for a reason. I would say probably better than Bademosi, but I really haven't studied film on both. But the reality is there is no way it could be determined how Butler would have changed the game had he played - it's all speculation. I think my point is that if he did do something that got him benched, he compromised the team.

luuked · Feb 5, 2018

AndyJohnson said:
I’m pretty sure Bademosi only played in place of a safety in the same spot. I’d have to go back and watch the few snaps he played to confirm that but at least most were when chung went out.

We are talking about the same formation. I am just saying that in his short phone press conference BB referred to that as a three corner defense. Just talking terminology. Dont actually care enough to argue about it or whatever.

lancerman · Feb 5, 2018

Soliel said:
No one would care lmao!!

They took away draft picks and suspended Brady over physics

Right. No one would care a bit gotcha

I gave you a winner symbol. Because if you honestly think that, you need all the positive reinforcement you can get.

Kdo5 · Feb 5, 2018

Just stopped in to comment on this. Without a great excuse in hand, Belichick benching Butler was by far the greatest blunder of his entire career.

Even worse Belichick and Patricia did not put him in when things looked bad. Every goddamn person who knew an ounce about football realized that they sorely missed having Butler on the field. I watched Eric Rowe get picked on and guys like Bademosi on the field missing the type of crucial tackles that Butler makes.

Belichick's legacy took a bit of a hit in my mind over this debacle unless there is a damn good excuse.

Brady, meanwhile, I feel terrible for. He played his ass of again. He kept us in the game despite the disastrous consequences of Belichick's decision. He only further cemented his greatness last night. The guy is incredible and it is a shame that Bill derailed us. Great offensive effort.

Ice_Ice_Brady · Feb 5, 2018

AndyJohnson said:
I’m pretty sure Bademosi only played in place of a safety in the same spot. I’d have to go back and watch the few snaps he played to confirm that but at least most were when chung went out.

You are really buying into Belichick's obviously fake comments? Butler was benched. When a guy is demoted or will get fewer snaps, the coach doesn't come up to you before the game and tell you that you're not playing, prompting you to cry during the national anthem. Nor does your playing time go from 97% of snaps to 0%. Something happened, and it's just a question of what and not if.

luuked · Feb 5, 2018

lancerman said:
1. Weed.
2. He missed a flight
3. He missed a meeting
4. Belichick didn't think he recovered enough to play in the game.

Either way, if it's any of those, there's no reason to not throw out some packages with Butler in them to see if they can do better after their current schemes were getting torched.

I dont think that any of the more outrageous claims are true otherwise Butler would not have given angry statements to the press but keep a low profile and get out of there. It makes no sense for someone who got caught with weed, missed curfew and returned drunk to put himself into the spotlight. Especially when that player is about to go into FA for the first time.

Ring 6 · Feb 5, 2018

Ice_Ice_Brady said:
So let me get this straight.

1. Butler is a cornerback, so he couldn't play in the Super Bowl because the team decided use only two cornerbacks (hard limit.)

Come on. The game plan was big nickel and big dime. No hard limit, gane plan.

2. Bademosi is a cornerback, but he was used as a safety, which looked an awful lot like cornerback, since his job was to matchup with receivers.

Subject to reviewing the game, what I saw was when Bademosi came in it was when a safety was injured. The scheme had him playing the role the injured safety was playing.

Chung is a safety but was often used a cornerback, matched up 1 on 1.

Yes that was part of the big nickel/big dime game plan.

Richards is a safety but was often used as a cornerback, matched up 1-on-1.

No he didn’t

3. Butler didn't play because he is a cornerback only, and he couldn't transition to the role of "safety" even though all of these other guys are interchangeable and asked to cover players 1-on-1 all the time. Nor was there a single play in the game where he could have subbed in at cornerback.

Huh?

No. If butler played it would have been in Rowe’s place IN THIS GAME PLAN. Rowe would have sat and the safeties would have played because that was the gane plan.
I’m not saying it was a good game plan but in it butler/Rowe wouldn’t be in Richards place.

Ring 6 · Feb 5, 2018

lancerman said:
1. Weed.
2. He missed a flight
3. He missed a meeting
4. Belichick didn't think he recovered enough to play in the game.

Either way, if it's any of those, there's no reason to not throw out some packages with Butler in them to see if they can do better after their current schemes were getting torched.

Of course there is.
If you are going to the Sb and a player can’t make his flight, is smoking weed and missing meetings how can you count on him? Not sure what you mean by not recovered???

billikens · Feb 5, 2018

Deus Irae said:
I'm not speculating with the following statement. I'm just responding to your "accommodation" comment:

My definition of commitment to team doesn't include needlessly pissing away your best opportunity to win a SB because you have a hair across your ass about a player who you can move on from in about 12 hours. If Bill's definition does include that, he nee

Deus Irae said:

I'm not speculating with the following statement. I'm just responding to your "accommodation" comment:

My definition of commitment to team doesn't include needlessly pissing away your best opportunity to win a SB because you have a hair across your ass about a player who you can move on from in about 12 hours. If Bill's definition does include that, he needs to change his definition.

Click to expand...

Ha ha, yeah, I guess Belichick's definition is different than yours. His mistake. Maybe you ought to give him a shout and correct him. I'm sure he'd appreciate it.

Bourne Patriot · Feb 5, 2018

The reactions of Butler and the other players tell me that this was an overly harsh decision to bench him.

I really thought he would ignite the D in the second half, there was little more to be gained from whatever point BB thought he was making.

If Malcolm had done something really bad, I'm sure he would have just said he made a mistake in the postgame, not talk about his confusion. He seemed very honest and broken.

Soliel · Feb 5, 2018

lancerman said:
I gave you a winner symbol. Because if you honestly think that, you need all the positive reinforcement you can get.

So you don’t believe it? When you can lose the goat for four games, lose millions in salleeies, lose first round picks that can never be replaced over Newtonian physics laws. Nuff said

Why is it hard to believe? Spy gate was over a spot not the deed, dfg was over god only knows what. I was wondering if we’d lose picks over the hole in the galaxy

50-yard-line · Feb 5, 2018

The people turning Butler into Reverend Jim here really need to back off.

Weed isn't legal in Minnesota. If the Pats caught him with weed, he should not have been on the active roster - full stop.

Soliel · Feb 5, 2018

guys, I just think I need sleep

I don’t mean offense but really, I’ve seen dumber stuff.

Nunchucks · Feb 5, 2018

AndyJohnson said:
Come on. The game plan was big nickel and big dime. No hard limit, gane plan.

Subject to reviewing the game, what I saw was when Bademosi came in it was when a safety was injured. The scheme had him playing the role the injured safety was playing.

Yes that was part of the big nickel/big dime game plan.

No he didn’t

No. If butler played it would have been in Rowe’s place IN THIS GAME PLAN. Rowe would have sat and the safeties would have played because that was the gane plan.
I’m not saying it was a good game plan but in it butler/Rowe wouldn’t be in Richards place.

I am thinking that Butler would play slot with Rowe on Smith.

Modest · Feb 5, 2018

50-yard-line said:
The people turning Butler into Reverend Jim here really need to back off.

Weed isn't legal in Minnesota. If the Pats caught him with weed, he should not have been on the active roster - full stop.

Which I haven't seen one reputable source report on yet, just asshats with enough twitter followers to get a rumor started.

mosslost · Feb 5, 2018

Chris Stevenson said:
Yep. Maybe if the offense didn’t stall in the red zone over and over, which was a problem all year i kept pointing to, along with slow starts, maybe we eek out a win?

you should apply for OC

ATippett56 · Feb 5, 2018

pheenix11 said:
This is a great point. Dumb news articles are saying Rowe replaced Butler and that was the sole problem. What they don't mention is that benching Butler put three people out of position and as you mentioned brought bench warmers onto the field. Rowe isn't bad, the problem is that everyone moved up a spot on the depth chart.

Patrick Chung on a slot receiver is not the solution.

Time to select cornerbacks in the 2018 NFL Draft. Yes, more than one.

Johnson Bademosi - unrestricted free agent
Malcolm Butler - unrestricted free agent

archstanton543 · Feb 5, 2018

ATippett56 said:
Patrick Chung on a slot receiver is not the solution.

Time to select cornerbacks in the 2018 NFL Draft. Yes, more than one.

Johnson Bademosi - unrestricted free agent
Malcolm Butler - unrestricted free agent

The need all kinds of help on D. But the biggest need is on the D-line and at LB.

XLIX · Feb 5, 2018

Bourne Patriot said:
The reactions of Butler and the other players tell me that this was an overly harsh decision to bench him.

I really thought he would ignite the D in the second half, there was little more to be gained from whatever point BB thought he was making.

If Malcolm had done something really bad, I'm sure he would have just said he made a mistake in the postgame, not talk about his confusion. He seemed very honest and broken.

I don’t believe Butler’s “I dunno” routine any more than I buy Belichick’s “coach’s decision, not disciplinary” routine.

No matter *what* it is - even if it is something purely football related like 10 blown assignments against Jax - Butler knows what is going on and why.

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