AsylumGuido

$781,599, to be exact. It was due in his contract this past Monday. The Patriots had to pay it.

AsylumGuido

No. That was once again "fake news". Seriously, it was nothing but, once again, speculation by media hacks with no clue that quickly becomes accept as fact by the gullible public.

AsylumGuido

I believe you are right. Not about the lurking portion, but there was no "outside" pressure to make those moves, but the pressure of wanting to win and knowing what had to be done.

saintsfan1976

Butler is a system Corneback and that system is known as the NFL

nola_swammi

Loom is have his hands all over this not Payton. If Payton had his hands on it and was seeking a trade the 1st statement that he said about Cooks will be a saint for 2017 would've never been made.

rezburna

I have no concern that the Saints will trade EITHER one of our first round picks for Malcolm Butler. If we were giving up a 1st we'd just sign the offer sheet. If Brandin Cooks could only command the 32nd pick in the 1st round, I'm pretty sure a 2nd rounder and a mid to late round pick or two from next years draft will suffice. My initial concern was whether or not Butler could play man coverage since that's something we want to do more of. I already knew he was good at the line of scrimmage with his press. I didn't want him in a straight up trade for Cooks because of how deep this draft is said to be on the defensive side of the ball, and I was worried about how much money we'd have to pay him once he got here. I'm not worried about any of that anymore. We seem to have plenty of money and are rumored to only be offering a 3 or 4 year deal. I'm sure it'll have similar escape clauses to the deal we gave Byrd as to not put us back in salary cap hell. I went and watched a few of the games he's played in as well. He's much better than any cornerback we have on this team, although Delvin Breaux and P.J. Williams have a lot of potential if they can stay healthy. That's a BIG if. First thing I noticed is that Butler actually attacks the ball in the air and gets his head around quick. We need defensive backs who can track the ball and give it back to our offense. Butler can do that. He can play man or zone. He can press. I don't know what the concern is with him shadowing #1 WR's, but I saw him cover and make plays on plenty of #1's in the highlights that were posted in this forum. Nobody playing for the Saints can shadow Julio Jones.....but that goes for EVERYBODY else in the NFL. We need guys who can make the play when the opportunity presents itself. You aren't about to shut down Julio. You can only hope to contain players like that for a little while or make the QB hesitant about throwing over there, but at the end of the day all it takes is one play to break a guy like that loose. I think he'll be fine covering the likes of Kelvin Benjamin and Mike Evans. I'm ready for us to work out the deal and pull the trigger. We INSTANTLY become a better team with the addition of Malcolm Butler.

"The first need of a free people is to define their own terms.” - Stokely Carmichael

ChrisXVI

Well said Rez!

burningmetal

One would hope that they wouldn't do the deal, if that's the case. I'm not convinced of that, however. I realize that Payton and Belichick are friends, but I don't know that it means they will be returning any favors. If they were willing to do that, then why not just trade Cooks for Butler the other day?

Don't forget that there are other suitors for Butler if the Saints don't pony up.

Seer1

You're right on many levels Rez, but don't forget that we've brought in many studs in the past just to watch them face plant on the astro turf here. A big part of a player's -regardless of talent level- success is not so much up to what they're bringing with them. I'm going to refer back to my favorite JP quote at this point, "It's the coaching stupid!"

burningmetal

I know you know better than that. System players are a real thing in this league. You might disagree with the assessment that Butler is one of them, but there are countless examples of guys who can only produce in certain systems.