Sean Payton Confirms the Saints Won't Make an Offer for Malcolm Butler
The #Saints won’t make an offer to Malcolm Butler, coach Sean Payton says https://t.co/Iw3AomCemA pic.twitter.com/D2yet7fOh2
— The Boston Globe (@BostonGlobe) March 29, 2017
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Sean Payton, answering questions about Malcolm Butler this morning:
“We had the chance to visit with him. Currently, it is my understanding he hasn’t signed his tender, so it was just that we could sign him to an offer sheet, but I don’t think we are going to do that and give up the 11th [overall] pick. In fact, we’re not going to do that. It is what it is right now.”
Well it looks like Malcolm Butler won’t be getting the Final Rose from Payton.
Any thought anyone had that just because Belichick and Payton have that personal bond that can only come from doing hard time in Warden Goodell’s Shawshank that he would ask for less than the Saints’ top pick should be dead once and for all. When it comes to leverage, Belichick is Archimedes, and he’ll move the goddamned Earth before he’ll give it up, no matter how much he likes a guy.
So this should just about do it for Butler. Or more to the point, Butler’s agent, who needs to quit wasting his (only) client’s time and get back to running daytime TV ads for mesothelioma lawsuits like the Slippin’ Jimmy that he is. He’s got to quit trying to convince Butler the world is going to treat him like a free agent when he’s not. There’s nothing “free” about being attached to a first round pick like conjoined twins. Teams don’t want to give up a high pick and a top-of-the-market contract. It simply never happens. And if Sean Payton isn’t going to do it, nobody will.
Butler needs to just sign the tender. Stay with the Patriots for 2017. Line up opposite Stephon Gilmore. Form one the best cornerback tandems in the league. Win a third Super Bowl. Then cash the fuuuck in. In the words of Martysaurus Rex, teams overpay for champions.
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Of course there’s risk of injury. If they’re worried about that, sign an extension with the Patriots. They’ll have to give up some salary for the security, but that’s the reality they find themselves in. Rob Gronkowski took the security and has been getting paid all through his multiple surgeries, Guys like Gilmore and Logan Ryan took the risks and signed top 10 contracts. That’s doing business as business is done. And while Payton added that his interest in Butler is “ongoing,” it looks for all intents and purposes that business will be getting done in Foxboro again this year. Thank God.