Malcolm Butler is upset that the Patriots paid Stephon Gilmore big money instead of him.
Malcolm Butler wants to get paid the going rate for elite cornerbacks this season, either with the Patriots or another team.
Malcolm Butler needs to recalibrate his expectations.
Unless a team gets stupid (and this is the NFL, so we can’t totally discount that), he’s not going to get paid this time.
More than likely, he’ll have to put his tail between his legs and come back to the Patriots for one more year. The NFL’s rules have ruined his leverage.
And that works out for the Patriots. Keeping Butler around only helps their defense.
The star cornerback and Super Bowl hero is unhappy with how free agency has unfolded. The Patriots placed a first-round RFA tender on Butler, which places him at a salary of $3.91 million for 2017 if and when he signs it.
That’s a nice little salary, but after playing for $420,000, $510,000, and $600,000 the last three years — seasons in which he made a franchise-changing play to help win a Super Bowl, then played as the team’s top cornerback — Butler wants to get paid like a No. 1.
Butler has been a hard worker, has kept his mouth shut, and has done everything the Patriots asked of him. If Gilmore can get $65 million over five years from the Patriots, and A.J. Bouye can get $67 million over five years from the Jaguars, shouldn’t Butler get something close to that, too?
Not the way the NFL’s rules work.
Gilmore was a former first-round pick and made it to the open market as an unrestricted free agent. Undrafted free agents like Butler always sign three-year deals, and become restricted free agents in Year 4, regardless of whether they have been Super Bowl heroes or not. Bouye, also an undrafted free agent back in 2013, just played a season on his RFA tender of $1.671 million.
Here are Butler’s options, none of which is in his favor.
Option 1: Search for a free agent deal with another team.
Butler is free to shop his services until April 21. If he signs a contract, the Patriots have five days to match it. If they don’t match, they receive that team’s original first-round pick in this year’s draft. The Saints, for example, would give the Patriots the No. 11 overall pick, not the 32nd pick they just acquired from New England in the Brandin Cooks trade. The Browns would owe the Patriots the No. 1 overall pick.
So that option is out.
Option 2: Work out a trade with another team.
Butler probably could find a trade partner if he’s willing to take a below-market contract, but what’s the point of that? The whole point is to get paid like a top cornerback. And a team isn’t going to trade a first-round pick for Butler unless it is confident it can sign him to a long-term deal.
So that option doesn’t seem likely.
Option 3: Act like a sourpuss and force your way out of New England.
This has worked in the past, where a player becomes so toxic that the team is better off trading him. But the NFL’s RFA rules work against Butler again here.
After April 21, he can sign only with the Patriots. If he hasn’t signed by June 15, they can reduce his salary from $3.91 million to $660,000. So Butler has 3.25 million reasons to sign by June 15.
He can skip the mandatory minicamp and training camp practices, but that will hurt his wallet. He can be fined up to $80,405 for skipping the three-day minicamp in June and will be fined $40,000 for every day of training camp that he skips. So that’s counterproductive.
His last option is to act like a grump during the season and try to force his way out. But the Patriots will simply bench him and destroy his reputation, and that will ruin any chance Butler has of getting a big contract in 2018.
So that option is out, too.
What is left for Butler, then? Sign his contract by June 15, report to the mandatory minicamp, report to training camp on time, and do whatever Bill Belichick asks of him in 2017. Bite his lip, collect his $3.91 million, then hit unrestricted free agency next year.
It looks like Butler’s only realistic option.
Ben Volin can be reached at ben.volin@globe.com. Follow him on Twitter @BenVolin.