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Fantasy Football Draft season is right around the corner and we're helping you prepare with all types of high end draft analysis. Today we're bringing you analysis of a dynasty league sleeper wide receiver, UDFA Jeremy Butler of the Baltimore Ravens.
Jeremy Butler, Baltimore Ravens UDFA WR
Age: 23, Height: 6-2, Weight: 224 40, Time: 4.60 (Pro Day)
Listening to the broadcast of Jeremy Butler’s Tennessee-Martin going up against Boise State, the announcers made some remarks about how Jeremy Butler had been heavily scouted by NFL scouts in his final year at UTM. As it would later be revealed, one of those scouts was Ravens Wide Receivers Coach Bobby Engram. Butler later mentioned how Engram had been coaching him over the phone during his final season at UTM. After going undrafted in the 2014 NFL Draft, Butler ended up having to make a decision between trying out for the Green Bay Packers (a highly efficient Wide Receiver factory) or the Baltimore Ravens. Due to his many engagements with WR Coach Bobby Engram, he chose to join the Ravens, an easy decision according to him. At the end of OTAs, Butler was one of the players singled out as having a great camp.
Pros: Lower Body Strength; Strong Hands; Consistently Beats Zone Coverage; Runs through Arm Tackles; Makes Difficult Catches; Catches the Ball Through Contact; Places Body Between Ball and Defender; Gets Open When Play Breaks Down
Cons: Weak Breaks on Routes; Weak Open Field Movements; Outside Routes Too Close to the Sideline; Weak Lateral Movements
Butler was moved around often in UTMs offense, playing a majority of his snaps either at the L-Slot or R-Outside. His size and natural ability to catch with his hands allowed for him to make a lot of use of routes that involved boxing out his opponents. Hitches, Curls, Ins, anything where he could put the corner behind him, was on all but one occasion a clean catch and then some. His ability to break arm tackles and fight contact would give him many opportunities for more yards after the catch. His most productive routes were hitch routes, and he was most consistent catching balls that travelled under 20 yards. Of all the throws charted, he caught 100% of the balls thrown at his chest.
One NFL scout said, in regards to Mike Evans, that one of those abilities you can’t teach a WR is getting open when the play breaks down. Being able to recognize when everything’s going wrong and you have to get open is something that’s just ingrained in you, as he put it. Butler is very able to get open, consistently. Of the small sample size I looked at, on any route where Butler was asked to run against zone coverage he would always find the soft spaces, and that same skill translated to him being able to find the open spaces when everything went wrong.
Play by Play Analysis
This is a play that easily stands out, asked to run what should be a hitch route from the L-Slot (a few steps up and a quick turn back to the QB), he immediately sees himself covered and at the same time recognizes that his QB is about to get pressured. Instead of waiting to see the result of that pressure, he bolts out of position and into the middle of the field where he is found wide open, high points the ball, and then begins running down the field. With a little more confidence in his movements and vision, this could have been an even bigger play but unfortunately one of the caveats of Butlers game is that he is consistently a little late on making open field moves and setting defenders up.
Similar to the last one, Butler is in a situation where he’s asked to run a post. When he recognizes the soft space, he takes a seat, and calls for the ball. Here he shows off some of his athletic abilities too. He’s hard to take down, doesn’t give opposing players easy angles to hit him at and he’s not afraid to run across the field instead of just north and south. Unfortunately, he lacks the lateral agility to make an even better play than this one and almost gets tackled by the first player. It’s entirely possible a better defender would have taken him down on first contact.
Butler also has great concentration. On these two difficult catches, he makes it look routine. He dives to catch an underthrown goal-line ball, adjusting on the fly and when asked to go up and make a catch underneath a defender, he gets one arm out and holds onto it throughout contact. Butler, in general, seems very comfortable dealing with contact.
In case you forget though, Butler is still a work in progress. That slant in the below play shows clearly why he still needs work. Lazy routes, tipping off where he would be going and weak breaks weren’t entirely rare occurrences for him.
So far, Butler has a lot going for him as a potential NFL wide receiver. A major factor is him being on a team with a coach that specifically asked for him. With proper coaching on his route running, there’s a strong chance that Butler makes the case for playing time as soon as 2014. Especially since the Ravens main Wide Receivers outside of Torrey Smith are fellow UDFA Marlon Brown and the aging Steve Smith. Butler can slow down the game, see coverage, and adjust on the fly- and with more direction he could use those same skills to help him gain more open field ability and confidence in his moves. Bobby Engram was adamant that he could make Butler into a great receiver. If he’s right, there’s a lot of value to be mined out of this sleeper in dynasty leagues.
