I was surprised when Hakeem Butler dropped all the way to the fourth round. He’s a big receiver, and he made a lot of plays at Iowa State. He caught 60 passes and 9 TDs last year, averaging 22 yards per catch.
I was further surprised when it was the Cardinals who selected him. They have a lot of needs and already had selected a receiver in the second round – Andy Isabella, who caught 229 passes and 30 TDs his final three years at UMass.
With Butler being a bigger receiver, I wasn’t sure that he fit what the Cardinals are trying to do. They’re going to some version of an Air Raid offense, and typically with that kind of system, you tend to see smaller receivers. Jakeem Grant and Keke Coutee, for example, put up huge numbers for Kliff Kingsbury a few years back.
But as I get the numbers in front of me and look over the stats, I see that plenty of big receivers played for Kingsbury at Texas Tech. Antoine Wesley and T.J. Vasher both caught over 50 passes last year, with a combined 16 TDs, and they’re both at least 6-foot-5. Previously, Dylan Cantrell has been effective for them, and he’s big (6-3, 220).
When Kingsbury showed up at Lubbock, he had tight end Jace Amaro as a holdover. They don’t use a traditional tight end, so they lined up Amaro more as a jumbo slot receiver and he caught 106 passes.
All told, in the last six years at Texas Tech, 31 receivers have caught at least 20 passes. Nine of those seasons were by players at least 6-foot-3.
| TEXAS TECH RECEIVERS WITH 20-PLUS CATCHES | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Year | Player | Ht | Wt | Rec | Yds | Avg | TD |
| 2013 | • Jace Amaro | 6.05 | 260 | 106 | 1352 | 12.8 | 7 |
| 2017 | Keke Coutee | 5.11 | 180 | 93 | 1429 | 15.4 | 10 |
| 2015 | Jakeem Grant | 5.07 | 168 | 90 | 1268 | 14.1 | 10 |
| 2018 | • Antoine Wesley | 6.05 | 185 | 88 | 1410 | 16.0 | 9 |
| 2013 | Eric Ward | 6.00 | 205 | 83 | 947 | 11.4 | 8 |
| 2017 | • Dylan Cantrell | 6.03 | 220 | 71 | 816 | 11.5 | 7 |
| 2016 | Jonathan Giles | 6.01 | 186 | 69 | 1158 | 16.8 | 13 |
| 2014 | Jakeem Grant | 5.07 | 168 | 67 | 938 | 14.0 | 7 |
| 2013 | Jakeem Grant | 5.07 | 168 | 65 | 796 | 12.2 | 7 |
| 2014 | Bradley Marquez | 6.00 | 203 | 65 | 821 | 12.6 | 10 |
| 2018 | JaDeion High | 5.11 | 190 | 62 | 804 | 13.0 | 4 |
| 2016 | Cameron Batson | 5.09 | 175 | 60 | 644 | 10.7 | 8 |
| 2017 | Cameron Batson | 5.09 | 175 | 59 | 487 | 8.3 | 5 |
| 2016 | • Dylan Cantrell | 6.03 | 220 | 58 | 675 | 11.6 | 8 |
| 2016 | Keke Coutee | 5.11 | 180 | 55 | 890 | 16.2 | 7 |
| 2018 | • T.J. Vasher | 6.06 | 190 | 54 | 687 | 12.7 | 7 |
| 2013 | Bradley Marquez | 6.00 | 203 | 49 | 633 | 12.9 | 6 |
| 2015 | Devin Lauderdale | 5.10 | 176 | 43 | 639 | 14.9 | 4 |
| 2015 | Ian Sadler | 5.11 | 195 | 42 | 596 | 14.2 | 3 |
| 2015 | Reginald Davis | 6.00 | 185 | 38 | 536 | 14.1 | 8 |
| 2018 | • Seth Collins | 6.03 | 190 | 32 | 317 | 9.9 | 2 |
| 2014 | Devin Lauderdale | 5.10 | 176 | 31 | 589 | 19.0 | 7 |
| 2016 | Devin Lauderdale | 5.10 | 176 | 31 | 307 | 9.9 | 2 |
| 2014 | Reginald Davis | 6.00 | 185 | 29 | 318 | 11.0 | 5 |
| 2015 | Cameron Batson | 5.09 | 175 | 29 | 327 | 11.3 | 1 |
| 2017 | • T.J. Vasher | 6.06 | 190 | 29 | 545 | 18.8 | 6 |
| 2013 | • Jordan Davis | 6.04 | 262 | 28 | 243 | 8.7 | 1 |
| 2016 | Ian Sadler | 5.11 | 195 | 24 | 363 | 15.1 | 0 |
| 2014 | Ian Sadler | 5.11 | 195 | 23 | 336 | 14.6 | 2 |
| 2015 | Zach Austin | 5.11 | 195 | 22 | 238 | 10.8 | 1 |
| 2014 | • Dylan Cantrell | 6.03 | 220 | 20 | 312 | 15.6 | 2 |
So I would expect Butler will fit in with what they’re doing. They’ll line him up outside, and I imagine he’ll use his size to his advantage. The Cardinals have Larry Fitzgerald (who’ll be 36 on opening day); maybe he can help Butler adjust to the pros.
But Butler isn’t fast. I think that’s why he wasn’t selected in the first three rounds. If you watch the Hakeem Butler highlight package, there are a lot of impressive grabs, but there isn’t a lot of separation. He’s not getting open, turning a lot of his balls into contested situations. Those are harder to win on at the pro level.
Note, by the way, that for all the touchdowns they threw down there -- an average of 37 per season -- only once did a player catch more than 10 TDs in a season. They tend to spread things around in that offense.
—Ian Allan