Post by Sideshow Bob on Aug 3, 2011 15:38:36 GMT -6
One of the biggest mistakes of Wade's tenure here was not recognizing the potential greatness of Victor Butler. Jason Garrett and Rob Ryan are not making that same mistake...
espn.go.com/blog/dallas/cowboys/post/_/id/4681313/victor-butler-opening-eyes
espn.go.com/blog/dallas/cowboys/post/_/id/4681313/victor-butler-opening-eyes
Victor Butler opening eyes
August, 3, 2011
by Todd Archer
Victor Butler might be one of the biggest beneficiaries of the change in defensive coaches.
No longer are the preconceived notions of what Butler can or can’t do from the previous regime. He gets a fresh start from defensive coordinator Rob Ryan and linebackers coach Matt Eberflus. Through a week of training camp Butler has made plays just about every day and finds himself a regular part of the sub-package defenses.
“I’m trying to pick it up as fast as I can because the faster you can pick it up the faster you can play,” Butler said. “If you know it, then you can play fast.”
Said head coach Jason Garrett, “I think Victor is like a lot of young guys we have on our team. He comes out of school and you can see some of the talent but you can see he has to mature as a person and as a player, understand technique, understand football, all those things. You try to give them opportunities early in there to see what they can do and get in a role to help your football team. But what you’ve seen is a maturation process over the course of a rookie year, an offseason, his second year and now into the third year. He’s becoming a guy who, I don’t want to say one of the more veteran players on the tea, but there’s a lot more younger guys around, so all of a sudden he feels more established and takes responsibility with that and continue to grow.
“You can say that about Victor Butler. We like how he’s started training camp and the things he’s going every day.”
In his first two seasons Butler was able to produce with little playing time. He had three sacks, two quarterback pressures, a pass deflection and forced fumble as a rookie and two sacks, four pressures and a forced fumble in 2010.
But his playing time was hit or miss behind DeMarcus Ware and Anthony Spencer. He had one snap vs. Jacksonville and it resulted in a sack.
“Every time I went out there I was thinking this would be the only play I would get so I had to make it count,” Butler said. “When we’d go t the film room Monday I wanted to make sure I graded out one out of one, 100 percent. If I was going to get one play it was going to be the best play of the game.”
This year he might have the chance to get more than just one snap.
