Malcolm Butler
I feel really bad for Malcolm Butler because the perception vs reality of him as a player is looking impossible to overcome.
After a rough first half of his first season with the Titans, he turned into one of the best cornerbacks Tennessee has had in the last 5+ seasons. He carried that into 2019 where he was great right up until his freak arm injury against the Carolina Panthers that sent him to I.R.
Now he is facing a situation where the cap space in 2020 is going to drop and he has a lot of non-guaranteed money on the books. That combined with the Titans adding a 2nd round cornerback to the roster alongside Adoree Jackson (former 1st rounder), is going to make it hard for him to stay with the team going forward.
The reason why he is getting mentioned here is because I think he will be huge today against a passing offense that really only had one big receiving threat in D.J. Chark. But the catch is that he has been dealing with a quad injury and he was questionable right up until inactives had to be released.
If Butler can thrive today against D.J. Chark with a good pass rush in front of him, then it could be a huge help to his odds next year. However, if he is banged up and gets beaten then you risk him getting into another funk, so this is a very crucial game for him.
Having said that, I think he will be very good today and if it isn’t following Chark then it will be him playing on a boundary with safety help following wherever Chark goes.