New England Patriots: Malcolm Butler addresses ‘ridiculous’ report

Malcolm Butler, who played 0 defensive snaps in Super Bowl LII, gave a statement that sheds light on why he didn’t play at all for the New England Patriots in the biggest game of the season.

Well, we have at least one side of the story. New England Patriots cornerback Malcolm Butler went to social media to give a statement on what went down on Sunday night.

It appears that the coaches weren’t lying, it was for football reasons only.

So this makes things a little more clear for everyone. It is just hard to imagine that Butler was performing so bad leading up to the game that the Patriots never put him in the game. The question now appears to be why was Butler not put into the game after halftime. I don’t care how bad he performed in practice the Patriots clearly needed him on Sunday.

Now to be fair Butler has had a sub-par season that’s for sure, but he would have changed the game for many reasons. Butler has great tackling ability, it is one of the best qualities of his game. Earlier this postseason Butler made key tackles to secure games for the Patriots. In the Super Bowl we saw Johnson Bademosi miss an easy tackle one I can guarantee Butler could have made.

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Also, Butler would have changed the Patriots coverage. Butler would have been covering Alshon Jeffrey. The Patriots needed to take Eric Rowe off of Jeffrey but this forced them to move Stephon Gilmore from his usual coverage. Gilmore is known for being able to lock down a side of the field, but on Sunday he was focused on one player. With Butler, both players would be in their natural schemes. You could also argue that this would lead to better coverage on Zach Ertz.

Belichick made a mistake

Now, this isn’t the first time Bill Belichick has taken a risk like this. He put Butler an undrafted free agent into the Super Bowl and he won the game. Belichick is a mastermind, the greatest coach ever, but maybe that mind got in his way. Butler would have had to commit a felony to be benched for a Super Bowl. So this seems to be rather good news for the New England Patriots head coach.

Patriots fans are used to these decisions panning out and this time things went the other way at the biggest game of the season.

Also, there’s this.

It appears that a lot of Butler’s teammates don’t agree with Belichick’s decision, including one of the most important players on the team.

In Brandon Browner’s rant about the benching, you can see that his post were liked by Dont’a Hightower and Bademosi. It is rare to hear current Patriots players sort of bashing their coach. It is just social media, but any statement is speaking volumes at the moment.

Next: New England Patriots: Examining team’s future following Super Bowl LII loss

This will definitely be an interesting offseason to watch as a Patriots fan.