Moving Butler would be ridiculous.

[dafoe2016]

I can understand why they wouldn't want to give Ryan a huge deal. He had one good year out of four. There is definite risk there. Paying Allen 18.3 instead of 21 to Bennett and giving up a draft pick was stupid, but I can live with it. I can even live with letting Blount walk (if that's the case) and handcuffing Brady with no running game. I'm numb to it by now.

What I cannot accept is throwing Butler away when there is absolutely no good reason to do so. If Bill deals him away, to me, it takes the wind out of the sails of what has otherwise been an excellent offseason so far. There is no excuse for getting rid of a very good corner and handicapping what could be a dominant defense next year for the 32nd pick in the draft. We have a chance to field the most complete Pats team ever. And instead we are going to throw Eric Rowe, Cyrus Jones or some other awful player out there so we can move up 30 or 40 spots in the draft? That's crazy.

Make him play for the 4 million and then let him walk next year if you don't want to pay him. There is certainly no reason you can't pay big money to two CBs. But if they don't, they still get a 3rd round compensatory pick. Giving up a year of dominating secondary play is not worth moving form the 3rd round to the very bottom of the first. I just don't understand the thinking here. Talk about overvaluing draft position. Their last two first rounders were Dominique Easly and Malcolm Brown. You can't get a guy of that caliber in round three?

 

[patriot1136]

I dream that we keep Butler but I guess we will see. I feel like there is a way to work it all out but its all $$ and people get stubborn.

 

[Marqui]

Yeah it is dumb but the decision has already been made.

 

[Brit patriot]

Did you just call Malcolm Brown a third round standard player?? Just for my own sanity?

That all works as long as Malcolm hasn't mentally checked out...unless you work at Foxboro, you don't know the answer.

 

[TeamFirst]

How many Butler posts are we going to have???

 

[Snooky97]

I thought that Rowe did a pretty good job for us. Not worried about him really, he's good size and look at the interception against marshall last season. Thought he played better than others give him credit for.

Only way Butler walks is we get the 11, don't see why we'd let them have him just for the 32 on its own, unless we get there 2nd as well plus a late flyer draft pick. Otherwise we keep him.

Running game never worries me the amount of screens we run i class that as our running game. Looks like thats improving anyway, normally does.

 

[Edelmania]

1. Dwayne Allen move was smart IMO. Less money, didnt give up much, younger & more potential going forward.

2. Dont get me wrong, I would love to extend Butler or even just let this year play out. But I dont believe trading him would be "ridiculous". If you cant come to an agreement on an extension, it is really no different than the Chandler Jones trade. Move on from a player who you will be losing next year anyway, and pick up a high pick (most likely 32) maybe even something else while you can. We will still be heavy favorites regardless of if we have Butler or not. Therefor I dont find it "ridiculous" to turn him into a high pick and reinforce your future.

3. We have some other guys that might be able to play. Rowe had a good season when he played. He did a great job on Julio Jones in the super bowl. Cyrus Jones could compete for the slot job. We still have plenty of cap space if we wanted to sign another corner. We could also draft or trade for a guy.

 

[Huckleberry1]

Did you just call Malcolm Brown a third round standard player?? Just for my own sanity?

That all works as long as Malcolm hasn't mentally checked out...unless you work at Foxboro, you don't know the answer.

If they aren't flashy they don't count.

 

[Froob]

I agree with most of the post (not really the bottom part), it's one thing to say we don't want to re-sign him and pay him 10+ this season but to say no to paying him 3.9 this year (remember we only traded Chandler Jones in his pricey option year, we didn't trade him within the four cheap years)? C'mon son. Plus he'll be playing as hard as he can in a contract year. If we don't win the SB and lose him for nothing, so be it. I'll take that risk. This team is loaded and the AFC is trash. We have a very very very very good shot at a repeat and a second dynasty with another 3 in 4.

 

[amazinPats]

This year's draft is loaded with good corners. That's likely where their first rounder that they get for Butler will go.

 

[Huckleberry1]

1. Dwayne Allen move was smart IMO. Less money, didnt give up much, younger & more potential going forward.

2. Dont get me wrong, I would love to extend Butler or even just let this year play out. But I dont believe trading him would be "ridiculous". If you cant come to an agreement on an extension, it is really no different than the Chandler Jones trade. Move on from a player who you will be losing next year anyway, and pick up a high pick (most likely 32) maybe even something else while you can. We will still be heavy favorites regardless of if we have Butler or not. Therefor I dont find it "ridiculous" to turn him into a high pick and reinforce your future.

I don't think anyone wants to see Butler go but their value on him is clearly lower than ours. If they can get a first for him they can get an edge rusher like Ryan Anderson or a top corner. Even without Butler they can have a top defense this season.

 

[stelfans]

The reason is that Bill is always thinking ahead. And if he feels he won't keep him past this year and values Gilmore more, he prefers to cash in something now.

I don't agree with it in this particularly situation but thinking 2 steps ahead of everyone else is what allowed him to build a dinasty. Who am I to disagree??

 

[Brit patriot]

If they aren't flashy they don't count.

Yeah, sad but true. Thankfully these people don't work in the front office and I never come near the gameday thread.

 

[luuked]

What I cannot accept is throwing Butler away when there is absolutely no good reason to do so

The reason to do so is that they are sure that there won't be any extension. Similar to how the Chandler Jones draft picks directly made a huge impact on our season last year the picks we might get from Butler might do the same down the road.

 

[JMC00]

Let's make this perfectly clear.

Butler leaving is completely on Butler.

 

[Froob]

Let's make this perfectly clear.

Butler leaving is completely on Butler.

He can really only leave if we allow him to though. If he's willing to play, then make him play. I can't imagine Saints are giving up that 11th pick.

 

[JMC00]

He can really only leave if we allow him to though. If he's willing to play, then make him play. I can't imagine Saints are giving up that 11th pick.

If he really wanted to still be with the Pats he would have signed the RFA tender, showing that he wants to here which would have put the onus on the Pats Instead he's now shopping himself, which hey he is more than entitled to do. But the second his agent started saying things to the media after Gilmore signed it showed that he is more Darelle Revis than he is Tom Brady and he can't really sit there and say "I want to be a Patriot for life" and then a day later have Sean Payton telling reports that he's having him in on a visit

 

[Urgent]

I get that Bill has a hard line on value of every player. In general, the fan base here tends to disagree on specific players but agree with the concept.

I get that Bill knows Butler's capabilities a lot better than we do.

But I sure hope he stays long-term.
There is enough cap space. Even with the Hightower deal, there seems to be around $20mm in cap space available this year. Concerned about all the large deals escalating (Gilmore, McCourty, Hightower, etc?) or concerned about re-signing Garoppolo, Solder, or others? Give Butler a $10mm roster bonus, which hits this year, still allows $10mm for cap space, and will lessen the hits from Butler in the future.

The great difference between paying two large QB contracts and two large CB contracts is that you often play with two CB's and seldom with two QB's.

 

[NG Pats Fan]

I can understand why they wouldn't want to give Ryan a huge deal. He had one good year out of four. There is definite risk there. Paying Allen 18.3 instead of 21 to Bennett and giving up a draft pick was stupid, but I can live with it. I can even live with letting Blount walk (if that's the case) and handcuffing Brady with no running game. I'm numb to it by now.

What I cannot accept is throwing Butler away when there is absolutely no good reason to do so. If Bill deals him away, to me, it takes the wind out of the sails of what has otherwise been an excellent offseason so far. There is no excuse for getting rid of a very good corner and handicapping what could be a dominant defense next year for the 32nd pick in the draft. We have a chance to field the most complete Pats team ever. And instead we are going to throw Eric Rowe, Cyrus Jones or some other awful player out there so we can move up 30 or 40 spots in the draft? That's crazy.

Make him play for the 4 million and then let him walk next year if you don't want to pay him. There is certainly no reason you can't pay big money to two CBs. But if they don't, they still get a 3rd round compensatory pick. Giving up a year of dominating secondary play is not worth moving form the 3rd round to the very bottom of the first. I just don't understand the thinking here. Talk about overvaluing draft position. Their last two first rounders were Dominique Easly and Malcolm Brown. You can't get a guy of that caliber in round three?

 

[BadMoFo]

Can someone give him a useful tag, that way he'll have them all.