The Titans will opt out of the final two years of Malcolm Butler‘s contract. They are releasing the veteran cornerback, Ian Rapoport of NFL.com tweets.
Cutting Butler will save the Titans $10.2MM. Ahead of this transaction, Tennessee held barely $1MM in cap space. The former Super Bowl hero spent three seasons with the Titans, signing a lucrative contract in 2018.
Tennessee added Butler on a five-year, $61.25MM deal in 2018. Although Butler turned 31 last week, the former UDFA will again generate interest as a free agent. He finished last season as Pro Football Focus’ No. 15 overall corner, playing 16 games after an injury-shortened 2019 slate. Butler intercepted four passes in 2020 and finished with the lowest yards-per-completion and yards-per-target figures of his Tennessee run.
A cornerback overhaul may be in the cards for the defending AFC South champions, who let Logan Ryan walk in free agency last year. They have Adoree’ Jackson going into a non-guaranteed $10.2MM fifth-year option season. After Jackson played in just three games last season, he could well be on track to join Butler in free agency soon. The Titans can only cut Jackson if he passes a physical, with the options for players drafted in the 2017 first round guaranteed for injury only.
The Titans also have two offensive free agents who should expected to be coveted next week. Funds from the Butler release could go to retaining either Jonnu Smith or Corey Davis. The Titans did not use their franchise tag this year.
Packers should sign him if cost is palatable. Need someone opposite Jaire who’s not friggin Kevin King.
God that would be nice…King has got to go! I guess he’d be ok as a 3rd/4th corner but he definitely should not be starting for a quality team
Right on! I’m not sure his asking price will work for Packers, but he’d be a huge improvement over King.
Vikings could use some experience at the position but lots of cuts to get under the ceiling without any signings
With Bailey being cut, the Vikings are between only one (OTC) and two (spotrac) million dollars over the cap. Two-year extensions to Smith and Reiff could give them around $10 million in cap space, and that’s before we even get into the possibility of extending Hunter and Cousins, which should get the team $10 million in 2021 cap space apiece.
Shamar Stephen might be cut, or he could be extended at a 2021 savings of two to three million bucks.
Raiders should look at this with no found cap space. He would make a lot more sense than Richard sherman at this point.
I completely agree on the fact that Malcolm Butler would make a lot more sense then Richard Sherman…. Butler does not have good luck dealing with crossing routes and in the TE strong AFC West crossing routes are a staple.
He had a pretty good year but got burned a few times. Not worth the $14 mil contract but have to wonder if the Titans tried to renegotiate and Butler said “No”.
Come back to the Patriots. Revive your career!
It’ll never happen
Let’s face it, he’s got his money from stopping one play. A play he practiced defending the entire pre-season.
How are the Titan’s players expected to keep their lockers clean and stocked without the services of the team’s BUTLER ???
Yuck…
Butler is a pass Interference machine. Watching all of their games, it looked like the refs just started feeling sorry for him and stopped throwing their flags.