Patriots Hosting CB Malcolm Butler & RB Leonard Fournette For Visits

According to Jeff Howe, the Patriots are hosting veteran CB Malcolm Butler and RB Leonard Fournette on visits today. 

Butler obviously is well known to the Patriots after starting his career in New England. Fournette has had interest from the Patriots at various times over the past couple of seasons and would be a great fit in their power run game. 

Butler, 31, wound up signing on with the Patriots as an undrafted free agent out of West Alabama back in 2014. He played out the final year of his rookie contract before signing a one-year restricted tender worth $3.91 million for the 2017 season.

From there, Butler agreed to a five-year contract worth more than $61 million to go along with over $30 million guaranteed with the Titans in 2018. He was owed a base salary $11,100,000 for the 2021 season when the Titans released him.

Butler signed a one-year deal with the Cardinals last year, but he opted to sit out the season. The Cardinals cut him loose this offseason. 

In 2020, Butler appeared in all 16 games for the Titans and recorded 100 tackles, four interceptions and 14 passes defended. Pro Football Focus had him rated as the No. 15 cornerback out of 121 qualifying players.

Fournette, 26, is a former first-round pick of the Jaguars back in 2017. The Jaguars declined Fournette’s fifth-year option and later waived him at the start of the 2020 season.

Fournette was entering the final year of his four-year, $27.15 million contract and set to make a base salary of $4.16 million for the 2020 season at the time of his release. The Buccaneers signed him to a one-year contract worth up to $3.5 million soon after and brought him back on another one-year deal worth up to $4 million last March. 

In 2021, Fournette appeared in 14 games for the Buccaneers and rushed for 812 yards on 180 carries (4.5 YPC) to go along with 69 receptions for 454 yards receiving and 10 total touchdowns.

We have both listed in our Top 100 Available 2022 NFL Free Agents list.