Donald Butler

[Steve]

The thing to remember is that there are fewer and fewer impact LB coming out in the draft. Most LB aren't very productive these days (in college) because they spend all day chasing WR around with all the spread offenses. So with college LB becoming glorified DB without the speed and movement skills, and different coverage techniques, you kind of have to wonder if it is going to take longer to find and develop LB in the future.

I bring all this up because it impacts greatly how we approach ILB with Butler. A few years ago, you could just draft a replacement, and in a year or so of splitting time, would be ready to start on their own. Now, it could take a couple, making Butler somewhat more valuable.

[QSmokey]

The thing to remember is that there are fewer and fewer impact LB coming out in the draft. Most LB aren't very productive these days (in college) because they spend all day chasing WR around with all the spread offenses. So with college LB becoming glorified DB without the speed and movement skills, and different coverage techniques, you kind of have to wonder if it is going to take longer to find and develop LB in the future.

I bring all this up because it impacts greatly how we approach ILB with Butler. A few years ago, you could just draft a replacement, and in a year or so of splitting time, would be ready to start on their own. Now, it could take a couple, making Butler somewhat more valuable.

Mods...please delete this (and the original, from Steve's post). Just in case Butler, or his agent, is reading.

[Bolt-O]

The ILB position seems to me to be like the RB... fungible. It would hurt in the short term to lose Butler, but at the same time, there are other FAs that may be just as good in their second contract. The key is to have other ILBs in the pipeline, so that the loss of a starter doesn't hurt as much. The Chargers do not have depth here, so now they may be chasing it again if they don't sign Butler, however I don't think its worth it to franchise tag him.

[MakoShark]

I don't think there will be any demand for Butler as a FA. So he needs to be reasonable.

I don't think that what his agent will tell him. They'll take their chances on the open market if the Chargers offer isn't to their liking.

[Steve]

The ILB position seems to me to be like the RB... fungible. It would hurt in the short term to lose Butler, but at the same time, there are other FAs that may be just as good in their second contract. The key is to have other ILBs in the pipeline, so that the loss of a starter doesn't hurt as much. The Chargers do not have depth here, so now they may be chasing it again if they don't sign Butler, however I don't think its worth it to franchise tag him.

History suggests that there will be several decent ILB kicking around come FA. ILB don't make a lot of game changing plays (sacks, int, FF), so teams don't want to shell out a lot. So if you wait, there are always a few cap casualties floating around. Most aren't as good as Butler, but they are close enough and cheaper.

I think with Butler you decide what he is worth now, what he would be worth if he was to step his game up to be an elite guy, and then offer him the 1st contract and put in some incentives to get him close to the 2nd number if he reaches them (like Beer was suggesting).

I do think that Butler is probably somewhat more valuble then some others do. I do think we want to make some effort to keep him happy and a charger. But he is an ILB and unlike Teo, we have a couple of other guys who can play his spot. There will be some other guys we can get as FA. We don't have to massively overpay to keep him.

[ArtistFormerlyKnownAsBKR]

Yeah, I don't think he's worthy of an overpay. If someone wants to do that, I bow out. I make a genuine attempt to keep him. But I set my number and don't waver. We're still several pieces away. I'd rather bite the bullet on this one to fill others for reasonable money if those opportunities present themselves. It's a tough one bc I hate to create another hole that we don't need to create, but we need to look at the big picture here. And I don't see Butler as a game changer. I see him as a really nice player who has more potential and provided he stays healthy, he could reach it. But the caveat limits what I'm willing to pay. Just don't see taking that risk on him. Would rather take the risk on players that have even more upside.

[SFW]

I always read posts about free agents saying "I would pay player X at a reasonable price". That word "reasonable" can vary quite a bit from poster to poster. We should do a poll on what specific dollar amount per year each fan would be willing to go up to sign Butler.