Jackson Free Press

Super Bowl XLIX hero Malcolm Butler is in New Orleans visiting with the Saints. Normally this wouldn’t be super newsworthy with the NFL in the midst of free agency. But Butler is not a free agent, but a restricted free agent. That means he is free to sign with another team, but his current team, the New England Patriots, have the right to match the offer.

Since the star cornerback is a restricted free agent, New England placed a first-round tender on him. That means any team that signs Butler has to give up a first-round pick if the Patriots didn’t match the offer sheet that another team gave the cornerback.

If he plays for the Patriots this season and signs his free-agent tender, Butler will make $3.91 million in 2017. That means that if the Saints sign Butler to an offer sheet, New England will get New Orleans’ 11th overall pick.

The Saints can also work out the details for a long-term deal with Butler and let the two teams work out a trade after he signs his tender. That trade could include players, draft picks or both.

New Orleans would do better to go the second route and not sign Butler to a long-term deal and watch the Patriots get the No. 11 pick. The Patriots already traded their No. 32 pick to the Saints for wide receiver Brandin Cooks.

New England might get its first-round pick back in a trade with the Saints. It seems unlikely that the Patriots would let Butler go for anything less after putting a first-round tender on him.

Butler’s name did come up during the Cooks trade, but he hadn’t signed his tender so he wasn’t under contract and couldn’t be traded. This just might be a long way around to get the deal both teams might have wanted in the first place.

New Orleans could decide also not to work a deal for Butler. The upcoming draft is deep in secondary players and a few potentially great players that can be selected.

Unlike drafted players, the Saints know what they are getting with Butler: a young player who has been named to the Pro Bowl and Second Team All-Pro. He brings two Super Bowl rings to New Orleans with him.

On the flipside, players the Patriots have moved on from generally don’t fare well in their next stop. New Orleans dealing for Butler could end up not being worth the price the team paid for him.

One more thing for the Saints to think about is Super Bowl LI. Butler struggled in coverage against the Atlanta Falcons. On one play, Butler got juked out of his cleats as a Falcons receiver blew past him.

He committed a pass-interference penalty in the game and played just okay enough not to stink the place up. If the Patriots hadn’t come back to win, Butler’s play might have ended …

Free agency is off and running in the NFL, and nearly every team is wheeling and dealing to sign or trade players. On Friday, March 10, the New Orleans Saints traded leading receiver Brandin Cooks to the New England Patriots.

The Saints got the Patriots’ 32nd pick of the first round and their 103rd pick in the third round. New England received Cooks and the Saint’s 118th pick in the fourth round to complete the trade.

New England is making moves to try to for a couple more runs at the Super Bowl while they still have Tom Brady. The future Hall of Fame quarterback will be 40 years old when the 2017 season begins.

Cooks gives Brady a reliable deep threat that the Patriots haven’t had in recent years. If tight end Rob Gronkowski is healthy next season and Cooks proves his worth, New England could become a matchup nightmare in the red zone.

It is easy, in the short term, to think New England is getting the better end of this trade. Cooks’ salary is $1.56 million this year, but with his fifth-year option in 2018, his salary will jump up to $8.5 million.

New Orleans has shown that it is able to get rid of offensive players and still have one of the top offenses in the in the NFL. The Jimmy Graham trade is one example of how the Saints have moved offensive players while future Hall of Fame quarterback Drew Brees and head coach Sean Payton have kept the offense rolling.

The Saints now own two picks in the first round (11th and 32nd overall), one pick in the second round (42nd overall) and two picks in the third round (76th and 103rd overall) in the first two days of the draft. New Orleans picks 196th overall in the sixth round and 229th in the seventh round to complete its draft.

In today’s NFL, first-, second- and third-round picks are supposed to help a team immediately in various ways. The first- and second-round picks should produce starters at some point in the season, and the third-round picks should make contributions early.

The best-case scenario is New Orleans getting five starters in this draft, but getting three starters out of five picks would be outstanding.

This draft is deep in wide receivers, so finding a cheaper replacement for Cooks isn’t out of the question. New Orleans needs plenty of help on defense, and this draft is also deep with pass-rushing defensive linemen and defensive backs, both areas of need for the Saints.

New Orleans could end up the long-term winner of this deal, depending on how well they draft. New England might just get Cooks for one season, and if the season doesn’t end in a trip to the Super Bowl, it could be a letdown.

The Saints’ other moves in free agency included re-signing defensive tackle Nick Fairley with just $9 million in guaranteed …