The Malcolm Butler situation is beginning to crystallize.
With a visit to New Orleans coming later in the week, Butler and his agent, Derek Simpson, are going to find out just what the landscape really is.
THE MALCOLM BUTLER SAGA
- Report: Butler to visit Saints on Thursday
- Texans reportedly interested in trading for Butler
- Curran: Here's an easy solution for Butler
- Cap guru Miguel Benzan discusses what would be a 'fair deal'
- Mayo: What they say in the locker room is 'don't count the other man's money'
They think the Patriots have been jerking them around and playing hardball because they won’t pay Butler like an unrestricted free agent? Let’s see if another team will pay Butler top-10 corner money and give up a first-round choice for the chance to do it.
If they will, Butler gets what he wants -- more money -- and the Patriots will get a first-round pick back from New Orleans.
And the Patriots should insist on the first-round pick.
New England Patriots
That’s what they tendered Butler as, he’s a very good player, and there’s no reason New England should consider anything less (sorry to the Texans and their hopes that a second-round pick may do it).
The Saints may not want to part with their original first-rounder -- the 11th overall -- in which case, they can work out the deal with Butler and approach the Patriots about a trade. Butler would then have to sign the tender offer from the Patriots so that New England would have his rights (Butler is a free agent right now) and the Patriots could send Butler to New Orleans for the 32nd pick in the draft (the one the Pats sent to the Saints last week for Brandin Cooks)
As Mike Florio notes, Bill Belichick is a stickler for following contractual and CBA rules when it comes to trades and contracts, so the letter of the law will be followed.
Which brings us away from the business for a moment and onto the football.
Are the Patriots better in the secondary with Stephon Gilmore and Eric Rowe/Cyrus Jones/Justin Coleman/Jonathan Jones/drafted player TBD than they would be with Butler and Gilmore? No.
They probably aren’t better with Gilmore and whoever than they were in 2016 with Butler and Logan Ryan. So there’s no reason for the Patriots to pave Butler’s exit without getting well compensated for letting him walk.
Which leads to another point, and that’s the notion that Butler is getting mercilessly hosed here.
Enough. This isn’t coal mining. Nobody needs to go all Norma Rae on Butler’s behalf.
As Senator Phil Perry pointed out Monday night on Quick Slants, if Butler signs his tender offer for the Patriots and agrees to take the $3.91 million 2017 salary, he’ll have career earnings of $5.4 million by the end of the upcoming season. By comparison, Dolphins wideout Jarvis Landry -- a second-round pick in 2014 (the year Butler came in undrafted) -- will have made $3.4 million.
And Butler’s turned down Patriots offers that would pay him more than that.
Meanwhile, as the process has gone on, it’s been mentioned how much Butler has to lose if he takes the field in 2017 and suffers an injury that would end his earning potential. As Jerod Mayo pointed out on Monday’s Quick Slants (it was a good episode), that’s what insurance is for.
On Tuesday, I spoke to Rich Salgado of Coastal Advisors, LLC., a man who’s been insuring professional athletes like Larry Fitzgerald, Reggie Bush, Michael Strahan and myriad NHL players for 23 years.
It only costs between $9,000 and $13,000 to buy $1 million in yearly insurance against injury. So taking the high end, Butler could pay $130,000 to buy a $10 million policy against catastrophic injury. That $10 million would be delivered tax free, so covering a possible $20 millon signing bonus (which would be halved by taxes, etc.) would cost $130,000. If Butler hasn't been taking out the insurance and is still resisting doing so, that's flat irresponsible.
Butler’s an awesome story. He’s a two-time Pro Bowler, and he secured what I would argue was the most important Super Bowl championship of the Patriots’ dynasty. The Patriots have tried, in a measured way, to do right by him while also covering their ass (Gilmore, Stephon) in case it goes sideways.
If Butler and his agent believe the best play for their side is to force their way out of Foxboro so Butler can get the money he believes is out there waiting for him, they can have at it. There’s no reason the Patriots have to make it easy for him to do that. And it will be interesting to see if he'll actually be offered the top-10 money ($11 million per year) he’s seeking.