Height: 6’5
The first thing you’ll notice when watching Butler is his monsterous size — he’s freakish. Basically a 6’6, 230 lbs NBA power forward who plays football. Butler broke the combine when measuring in the 95th percentile or better in height, weight, wingspan, arm length and hand size. Few words can do Butler's size justice. Outside of George Kittle, the 49ers, or any team for that matter, don’t have a player of Butler’s stature on their roster.
Butler’s size transitions well to the field — he’s a bully with the football in open field and uses his elite size to box out corners in the red zone. Butler's YAC ability might be the his best skill at this stage of his career as he's incredibly tough to bring down. His frame does take away some of his agility, but in open space he's surprisingly elusive and creative as a runner.
A 6’6 deep threat? What? Yep. Butler is a show stopper with his size, but you can’t miss his downfield speed — it’s for real. Butler is a legit, but underrated deep threat in this class. When looking at him you instantly categorize him as "redzone target," but he's much more.
Butler uses his long strides to eat up ground quickly and before you know it he's behind the secondary. Butler had receptions of 83 yards, 65 yards and 57 yards last season for the Cyclones. Yes, Butler did play in the Big 12 where defenses liked to give up the big play, but Butler backed up his speed with an impressive sub 4.5 40-yard dash at the combine. Butler does need some space to get going off the line, but once he hits that nextgear — good luck.
Everytime I watch Butler, I walk away with one word flashing in my head: unique. Every game note I have of Butler the word unique is mentioned. He’s a rare blend of elite size and blazing speed, just something we don’t see these days. With all the innovation in modern day offenses there isn’t much doubt Butler will find a role in the NFL. Creative offensive minds are always seeking out player with unique a unique skillset like Butler’s (ie: Kyle Shanahan).
Butler needs to improve his release off the line. Corners at the next level will try and get physical with him at the line of scrimmage unless he can beat them better with a crafty release. Butler also needs to be more consistent with his hands. Butler is exceptional when high-pointing the football in a battle, but can get very inconsistent with easy catches. Butler may have dips in focus on the football field which is a problem, but these are fixable with the right coaching and development.
As productive as Butler was at Iowa State he still has a lot of untapped potential. Like I had mentioned earlier, a creative offensive minded coach like Shanahan could be the coach to unlock Butler’s true talent. Although Shanahan hasn’t valued large targets during his tenure in San Francisco, Butler’s skills check a few of Shanahan’s wants — versatile, speedy, unique and creative. Butler could start as an outside receiver, but has the traits to play the newly popular “big slot” position. If Butler falls the 49ers should be doing whatever they need to do to get him to Santa Clara.