The Cowboys played their last game on NBC which features the green zone, and they may have just now entered the twilight zone. Brice Butler is back in Dallas.
It makes sense for the Cowboys to bring back Brice Butler. He’s performed well within this offense and he has great chemistry with Dak Prescott. He spoke to the Dallas Morning News about this, and when you look at what he said specifically, it really is a no-brainer to bring back someone that he’s so comfortable with.
Dak on pending return of Brice Butler: A guy that I've been comfortable w/ the last 2 years. I know what he can offer, he can stretch the defense deep, can run over the top, he's a great route runner. W/ [receivers] Coach Sanjay [Lal] helping him, he's only going to become better
— Kate Hairopoulos (@khairopoulos) September 18, 2018
While the team’s quarterback may like him there are plenty of Cowboys fans who still hold a bit of a grudge against Butler. Back in January, the world saw Brice appear on FS1’s Undisputed and he made some comments that got a little bit overblown, these are the Cowboys after all, that at the time had a lot to do with Dez Bryant (this was before Dez’s release and own public thrashings of the team).
.@RealSkipBayless: Do you believe you could've been more productive this year if given the opportunities than Dez Bryant?@Brice_Butler: "100%" pic.twitter.com/D3f4fyc2g0
— UNDISPUTED (@undisputed) January 11, 2018
Now that Butler is back with the Cowboys this video is definitely worth re-watching. Something that is particularly interesting is what happens at about the 2:50 mark when he is asked if he expects to be back.
Butler talks about how he believes the market for his services would be something that he wanted to explore (he signed a two-year deal with the Cardinals but was released before Week 1) and he did note that he was open to a return to Dallas. He did offer a bit of an explanation, though.
I wouldn’t mind being back in Dallas, but there’s going to have to be some changes made. I’ll definitely voice that with the team and the organization.
Earlier in the interview Brice notes that he discussed things with the team while still on it, things concerning his production. According to Butler he asked (not in a forceful way) to be featured more given that there was seemingly always success when he was highlighted in the offense. There’s a case to be made for that to a degree, Prescott sort of did that himself, but it’s not exactly a foregone conclusion.
Butler was prodded on whether Dez Bryant would need to be gone in order for him to return and he did his best to respect Dez with his answer, but he did drop an interesting line in his closing thoughts.
Going into free agency thinking about Dallas, there will be some things that I would have to know before anything.
What did Brice need to know? What changes are potentially going to be made? Considering that he’s back with the Cowboys it stands to reason that he got some of the answers that he was looking for. Maybe the team does plan to highlight him more, but if that’s the case why would they wait until Week 3 to make a decision of that?