Last offseason, after the Patriots signed Stephon Gilmore to a mega-deal, the thought was they chose him over Malcolm Butler.
Well, maybe that wasn't the case after all.
On Wednesday, ESPN's Field Yates tweeted: Some context on Malcolm Butler's reported 5-year $61M deal with Titans: the Patriots' final offer before last season was for 6-years, $66M, with $25.5M guaranteed (five years on top of his restricted free agent tender of $3.91M). Same neighborhood.
Yates went on Dale & Keefe later in the afternoon where he said the Patriots made that offer after they signed Gilmore, so they really wanted to have both Gilmore and Butler long-term.
Of course, Butler played last season as a restricted free agent and made $3.91 million before signing with the Titans this week.
"Obviously, revisionist history and you could say maybe it was worth taking that offer given that if you do the math, the Patriots' offer of six [years] for $66 million is like $100,000 more than what Malcolm Butler will make," Yates said. "Now, when you factor in last year's franchise tender plus a potential maximum value of his deal with the Tennessee Titans, maybe if he could do it all over again, he would do it all over again.
"I think probably what happened is when a player sees the opportunity to hit the open market and they see the kind of money that is being thrown around in free agency. I think players say to themselves, 'I need to at least test that. Let me drive up my price tag with competition.' Well, sometimes what they may not necessarily be able to see is that it was a very lucrative offer and I would contend the Patriots' was very lucrative based off everything I laid out [in the tweet] that that deal may not be as good as you're going to get, but right there in the neighborhood.
"As much as I support players getting the most money as they can get when the opportunity arises, there is something to be said for fit, for familiarity, for whatever might be home for that player because we see all these deals and money flying around, but a lot of these guys that are signing today will be out on the open market in two and three years. I think there is something to be said for finding the right team, not finding the one that pays you the most money."
Below is the complete interview.
