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BigKen
Day to Day
Everybody's thinking that there was a wink-wink deal where the Patriots get Brandin Cooks and Malcolm Butler gets an offer from the Saints and the Patriots get the picks they sent to the Saints for Cooks and it basically becomes a Butler/Cooks + 4th round pick.
WRONG..............Never that simple and the NFL is watching this more closely than anyone would expect. Roger Goodell would like nothing more than to catch Bill Belichick doing a behind the scenes deal and either ban him for life or at worst ban him for a year.
Phil Perry of ESPN & CNNSE basically stated out loud that Belichick made the deal for Cooks and that getting the picks back is not going to give the Saints Butler. He says that it will cost the Saints the #11 and quiet possibly a 2nd or 3rd round pick and that 3rd rounder will not be the Patriots traded pick.
He said that Sean Payton also has to watch his step because of past NFL penalties.
His final statement was pretty simple. Right now the Saints have less than $12M in cap space. Butler was bitching about not being paid Gilmore money. If the Saints give Butler $12M, they literally will have to pare a couple of players and sign cheaper ones or get several players to renegotiate their contracts. Asking players to take pay cuts with a huge new salary cap may be really difficult.
Finally, the Patriots have about $43M in cap space and they have to use it somewhere. If Butler gets a three year $36M offer from the Saints, why wouldn't BB just match it? He'd still have $31M in cap space and one of the best Cornerback tandems in the NFL.
Perry thinks that this deal may not happen after all and that Butler will be back with New England, playing for his third Super Bowl ring.
WRONG..............Never that simple and the NFL is watching this more closely than anyone would expect. Roger Goodell would like nothing more than to catch Bill Belichick doing a behind the scenes deal and either ban him for life or at worst ban him for a year.
Phil Perry of ESPN & CNNSE basically stated out loud that Belichick made the deal for Cooks and that getting the picks back is not going to give the Saints Butler. He says that it will cost the Saints the #11 and quiet possibly a 2nd or 3rd round pick and that 3rd rounder will not be the Patriots traded pick.
He said that Sean Payton also has to watch his step because of past NFL penalties.
His final statement was pretty simple. Right now the Saints have less than $12M in cap space. Butler was bitching about not being paid Gilmore money. If the Saints give Butler $12M, they literally will have to pare a couple of players and sign cheaper ones or get several players to renegotiate their contracts. Asking players to take pay cuts with a huge new salary cap may be really difficult.
Finally, the Patriots have about $43M in cap space and they have to use it somewhere. If Butler gets a three year $36M offer from the Saints, why wouldn't BB just match it? He'd still have $31M in cap space and one of the best Cornerback tandems in the NFL.
Perry thinks that this deal may not happen after all and that Butler will be back with New England, playing for his third Super Bowl ring.