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darrelle revis

Putting Malcolm Butler’s 2017 RFA Contract in Historical Context

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Not gonna lie, I’m not really enjoying the last couple weeks of the “Butler’s mad, maybe they’ll get Sherman” merry-go-round. Long gone are the days of “holy hoodie we got Brandin Cooks.” Now it seems like all anyone cares about is what’s going to happen with Butler.

For the record I love Butler. And not just for the SB49-sealing interception. I believe he’s the best young corner the Pats have had since Ty Law and I do hope that he sticks around in New England for a long time. However, with the first round RFA tender Butler is scheduled for a 652 percent raise, going from making $600K in 2016 to $3.91 million in 2017.

This would also give Butler the 9th-highest average annual salary under Belichick. So I think we need to pump the brakes a bit on how much Butler is getting screwed here. By now we know this is how the Pats do business. There’s no sentimentality, it’s all about maximizing the 1-53 roster even if some feathers get ruffled.

Let’s take a look at what the Pats have paid corners in the past and how Butler fits into it all, even on his RFA first round tender.

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Has Belichick Had a Change of Heart on Cornerbacks?

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Fun little tidbit from Ian Rapoport this morning, indicating that the Patriots made a call to the Seahawks to inquire about Richard Sherman‘s availability prior to them signing Stephon Gilmore.

This leads me to wonder if Belichick has changed the way he values cornerbacks. A couple years ago I wrote this extensive piece breaking down how the Pats have never been willing to give long-term deals to cornerbacks. Sure, they’d pay a chunk of change for a season like they did with Asante Samuel on the franchise tag ($7.79 million) or a year of Darrelle Revis ($12 million), but prior to 2012 the Patriots didn’t really seem to care all that much about the position.

Then came the in-season trade for Aqib Talib, the Patriots first foray into acquiring a physical man cornerback. They retained Talib for 2013 for $4.86 million after being unable to work out a long term deal. That felt like the same old Patriots, who always preferred to focus on the front seven long before investing in a cornerback.

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LaCanfora: NFL personnel man convinced Darrelle Revis is going back to New England

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“We did our work on him. He can still play. He can cover. He doesn’t have that long speed anymore; he’s not going to cover a No. 1 receiver deep. But he can cover in tight spaces and he has great instincts. The film is not as bad as some would have you believe. He’s a perfect fit in that quarters scheme Belichick runs, and they have the kind of safeties who can help him out, too. We’re convinced he’s going back to New England. It just makes too much sense.”

Source: NFL personnel man: We’re convinced Darrelle Revis is going back to New England – CBSSports.com

Interesting. I still don’t really see it but let’s play along and figure out how Revis might fit in if he were to come back.

First, who knows what’s going to happen with Malcolm Butler. The Patriots hold all the cards and the only way they trade him to the Saints is if they get a boatload of draft capital. As I speculated last week, Belichick might just be letting the Saints to the dirty negotiating work, and if they come to a acceptable offer for Butler who’s to say the Pats won’t just take their cap space and take the chance to match the deal and lock up Butler long term like we all hoped they would do all along?

But for our purposes here let’s just assume Butler gets traded to the Saints. That leaves the Pats with five corners — Stephon Gilmore is the best guy, Eric Rowe came on late last year but was still brought in as the third corner and played outside while starter Logan Ryan shifted inside to the slot.

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Pats Posits: Brady Jersey Recovery Means a Butler Speculation Break

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We’re lucky this morning that the rash of speculative Malcolm Butler-to-the-Saints articles have been knocked to the background, if for only a day, because Tom Brady‘s Super Bowl 51 jersey has been found! And crazy enough, they found the Super Bowl 49 jersey with it.

Here’s the scoop from Jay Glazer:

So here’s actually what happened. The FBI and the NFL security, along with Patriots security and the Houston PD, they actually went through all this video to try and track somebody down, and they zeroed in on somebody, a person of interest.

That person of interest, from what I’m told, is an international member  of the media. I don’t believe he’s actually a member of the media, but he was posing as a member of the international media. Got credentialed, it’s been going on for quite some time.

And he actually, from what I’m told, they have him going into the locker room right behind Bill Belichick as if he’s with the team. Goes in there, loiters around a little while and is seen leaving the locker room — this is the video they’re trying to look at right now — seen leaving a little bit later with something under his arm. 

Just another bit more lore for Tom Brady and his Super Bowl aura, and really, in what is slowly developing into the quiet lull in between free agency and the draft, this is just the kind of offseason story to break the monotony. Because let’s face it, we could be hanging on Butler-to-the-Saints for another month since Butler doesn’t have to sign his tender until late April.

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Back in March, Revis was very amenable to the idea of staying in Foxborough. “Darrelle loved playing for (Bill) Belichick,” said one source with knowledge of Revis’ mindset. He liked, in particular, the way the Patriots coach challenged him intellectually, and saw the business-like culture was a fit for him. On the other hand, Revis felt connected to the Jets, since the organization had made such a huge investment in him personally over the years (starting with the draft-day trade-up), provided him with a chance to become a Namath-like figure in its lore, and sits in the shadow of New York City, a place he truly loves. In the end, if the money was close between the Jets and 30 other clubs, it was always going to be the Jets. If the cash was close between the Patriots and 30 other clubs, he’d have picked the Patriots. If the Pats and Jets were close? Anyone’s guess. But it wasn’t close.

Albert Breer

Don’t love how Revis showed no support for Brady during Deflaaabaa, but it was fun getting to watch him as a Patriot for a year. And again, I’ll take Malcolm Butler at 1/32nd the cost.

https://www.patspropaganda.com/back-in-march-revis-was-very-amenable-to-the-idea/

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He makes it tough. His instincts are incredible out there. He’s one of those guys that sees everything on the field. He sees the formations and routes and splits. Anything pre-snap that can help him get an idea of whether the ball coming his way or if it’s going the other way or if it’s a run or pass or deep throw or short throw. He’s a very dependable, consistent player. He’s been an incredible playmaker since he’s been in the league. He covers the top guys every week so I got a first-hand look at that last year every day in practice. It was great to have him a part [of team] here but he moved on so now he’s our competition again.

Tom Brady

https://www.patspropaganda.com/tom-brady-darrelle-revis/