Malcolm Butler: Facing Patriots 'just another game'

http://www.nfl.com/news/story/0ap3000000...other-game


On the eve of facing the Patriots, who benched him in the Super Bowl this past February, Titans veteran cornerback Malcolm Butler finds himself in a tenuous position with his current team.

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The Butler signing in tackland was the first clue for me that maybe Vrabel wasn't going to be an instant savior for them.

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The Butler signing in tackland was the first clue for me that maybe Vrabel wasn't going to be an instant savior for them.

Right, because Vrabel is in charge of signing players.

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We learned in the Sunday School who made the sun shine through.  I know who made the moonshine too, back where I come from.

The Butler signing in tackland was the first clue for me that maybe Vrabel wasn't going to be an instant savior for them.

Right, because Vrabel is in charge of signing players.

You’re joking right? 

Former pats player turned coach running essentially pats d scheme brings in a pats cast-off DB - and you think Vrabel has no hand in that?

LOL

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Right, because Vrabel is in charge of signing players.

You’re joking right? 

Former pats player turned coach running essentially pats d scheme brings in a pats cast-off DB - and you think Vrabel has no hand in that?

LOL

You don’t know who our GM is, apparently.

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You’re joking right? 

Former pats player turned coach running essentially pats d scheme brings in a pats cast-off DB - and you think Vrabel has no hand in that?

LOL

You don’t know who our GM is, apparently.

A-Ha!! Got me. 
I didn't know anything about Robinson's resumé/past experience. 
My bad. 

What's the general take on his drafting so far?  Do you think or know of him to work in concert with coaching on personnel acquisitions?  (for instance - Caldwell was outspoken about drafting/acquiring certain traits for players in Gus Bradley's defense and we've seen that change since)

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First Jaguars now the Titans took care of business against the Patriots. Sweet revenge there!

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Ready for May Day and May Flowers!

You don’t know who our GM is, apparently.

A-Ha!! Got me. 
I didn't know anything about Robinson's resumé/past experience. 
My bad. 

What's the general take on his drafting so far?  Do you think or know of him to work in concert with coaching on personnel acquisitions?  (for instance - Caldwell was outspoken about drafting/acquiring certain traits for players in Gus Bradley's defense and we've seen that change since)

I think fans are generally high on him so far.  He whiffed on the Dodd pick (second round), but quickly owned it and cut him this year.  The jury is still out on a few of the picks, but no one bats 1.000.  I think his trades and FA signings have been mostly good as well with the possible exception of Butler, but I think it's too early to call that a definitive screw up.  Dion Lewis was a great pick up, trading Dorial Green-Beckham for Dennis Kelly was a winner, the Logan Ryan pick up was solid, and of course the trade for Demarco Murray a few years ago was really good.

From what I can tell, Robinson is a Type A personality and handles personnel moves with some input from the coaching staff, but he really owns that area. Vrabel sticks to coaching.

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We learned in the Sunday School who made the sun shine through.  I know who made the moonshine too, back where I come from.

You don’t know who our GM is, apparently.

A-Ha!! Got me. 
I didn't know anything about Robinson's resumé/past experience. 
My bad. 

What's the general take on his drafting so far?  Do you think or know of him to work in concert with coaching on personnel acquisitions?  (for instance - Caldwell was outspoken about drafting/acquiring certain traits for players in Gus Bradley's defense and we've seen that change since)

He was sniping Pats’ players before Vrabel was hired. Vrabel himself is an ex-Patriot acquisition, to state the obvious.

Keep fishing.

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A-Ha!! Got me. 
I didn't know anything about Robinson's resumé/past experience. 
My bad. 

What's the general take on his drafting so far?  Do you think or know of him to work in concert with coaching on personnel acquisitions?  (for instance - Caldwell was outspoken about drafting/acquiring certain traits for players in Gus Bradley's defense and we've seen that change since)

He was sniping Pats’ players before Vrabel was hired. Vrabel himself is an ex-Patriot acquisition, to state the obvious.

Keep fishing.

Not fishing at all. I read his bio and looked over his acquisitions. It would appear even the Vrabel hire was part of the pattern. I would expect the Butler add was initiated and largely decided by the GM after reading what I've read on Robinson. 

Every F.O. and HC have some degree of coop on personnel matters. Some involve the coaches a great deal - others don't.  Just curious where you think the tacks fall on that spectrum.

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Of course they do. It would be foolish for GM’s and coaches alike to make personnel decisions without consulting each other at least. My point is that in this case, the die was cast long ago. A lot of GM’s are more comfortable bringing in players they already know, scouted previously, and have had success with previously. Robinson is no exception in that regard.

If you’re actually interested in what I think about Robinson, I am somewhat impressed. I don’t know where the ceiling is. I hope it is higher. I’m not completely disappointed in what has happened at WR and TE. I understand the situation was out of his control. We started the season with Walker and Matthews. I would like to have seen someone else brought in to make us more competitive early in the season when we lost those players. The young guys are stepping up at times, but the growing pains have been costly.

Nonetheless, Robinson flipped this roster quickly when he was hired and got us competitive fast, which this team hadn’t been in a long time at that point. He seems to understand that games are won in the trenches.

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robinson has had his share of lumps and hits. kevin dodd was a bust.... kevin byard all pro... derrick henry bust (for his draft position) imo.... jayon brown in the 5th is a stud this year... he's definitely a solid GM and I have no complaints other than we needed some WR help before the trade deadline. we apparently made offers on both amari cooper (including a 1st rounder) and demaryius thomas, so at least he was aware and trying. I expect to go WR early next season unless our depth guys step up.

he definitely makes the decisions but this year with hiring vrabel (an ex LBer) we went SUPER heavy in the draft on LB... taking rashaan evans and then trading up for harold landry, only leaving us with 4 total picks (and we cut the 6th rounder already). I find it EXTREMELY hard to believe vrabel didnt have input there. i liked the LB picks though and they are both playing pretty well, landry especially.

However, when we picked corey davis @ 5 two years ago it told me he was already planning on dumping mularkey before the season even started, and there is no way mularkey petitioned for a receiver that early. why would mularkey need a stud #1 receiver with a top 5 pick when he was running 3 TE sets? So I think jrob absolutely talks to his coaches about needs but at the end of the day he makes the decisions and isnt afraid to do as he pleases.

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