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WR Hakeem Butler, Free Agent (1 Viewer)

Iowa State WR Hakeem Butler measured in at 6-foot-5 and 3/8 inches and 227 pounds at the NFL Scouting Combine.

Butler comes in just a smidgeon under his listed 6-foot-6 height for 2018 while checking in two pounds heavier than his listed 225 pounds. His impressive measurements go far beyond just height/weight, though, as he also measured out with giant hands (10 6/8 inches) and a pterodactyl-esque wingspan of 83 7/8 inches. Butler sizzles as a wideout when he needs to reach for passes, as he is adept at using his length (coupled with slick body control) to haul in tricky passes. If he can prove that he has the wheels in testing over the coming days, he may start to creep into the Day 1 conversation.

SOURCE: Charles Robinson on Twitter

Feb 28, 2019, 1:23 PM
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The Athletic's Dane Brugler believes that Iowa State WR Hakeem Butler is an "interesting case" at the NFL Scouting Combine.

Butler (6'6/225) was outstanding in 2018, but there are questions about his athleticism at the next level. As Brugler notes, he appears to show good athleticism, but "the main issue on tape is he looks like a very different athlete as a route runner compared to the open-field." Butler doesn't need to wow in Indianapolis with his speed, but teams will want to see that he has the speed and athleticism to separate at the next level. If he can, a Day 2 pick seems very likely.

SOURCE: The Athletic

Feb 25, 2019, 11:03 AM
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Iowa State redshirt junior WR Hakeem Butler declared for the 2019 NFL Draft.

Butler finished his college career with a dominant effort against Washington State with nine catches for 192 yards in the Alamo Bowl, although it did come in a loss to the Cougars. He picked up 60 receptions on the year with 9 scores, and the 1,318 yards show that he's capable of making big plays down the field. He's listed at 6-foot-6, 225-pounds, so he should be an excellent red-zone target as well. The questions will be about his athleticism, but right now, he projects as a Day 2 candidate who could end up going in the first round if he does test well.

SOURCE: Tommy Birch on Twitter

Jan 7, 2019, 6:55 PM
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A few posts I made about Butler in another thread:

ZWK said:
Here's an interesting batch of WRs, going back to the 2006 college season:

Hakeem Butler    Iowa State    2018
Andy Isabella    U Mass    2018
Jordan Lasley    UCLA    2017
Cedrick Wilson    Boise St    2017
Corey Davis    W Mich    2014
Rashard Higgins    CSU    2014
Terrance Williams    Baylor    2012
Justin Blackmon    Okla St    2010
Alshon Jeffery    S Carolina    2010
Demaryius Thomas    Ga Tech    2009
Danario Alexander    Missouri    2009
Dez Bryant    Okla St    2008
Hakeem Nicks    N Carolina    2008
Adarius Bowman    Oklahoma State    2006

Pretty high hit rate, especially after adjusting for knee & alcohol problems.

These are the 14 receiving yardage seasons with elite efficiency and volume, meaning at least:

  • 11 YPT,
  • 40% market share of receiving yards, and
  • 1000 receiving yards
Butler has 12.2 YPT, 42% market share, and 1318 yards. Isabella has 11.6 YPT, 47% market share, and 1698 yards.
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ZWK said:
Hakeem Butler looks like a pretty exceptional WR.

As I wrote about earlier, it's rare for a WR to be both a high volume and high efficiency player, but Butler (and Isabella) pulled it off this year. Butler's 12.2 YPT was 10th in the country, and his 42% market share of his team's receiving yards was 5th in the country, and his 101 receiving yards per game (or 1318 total receiving yards) were 9th in the country. Defenses knew that Butler was the guy to stop, and he was still able to keep putting up big plays on them. Put these together with his other stats, and my formula has Butler as the most productive receiver this year, narrowly beating out Isabella and Hall.

Butler is also huge, estimated at 6'4.8" 225 lbs. I posted a few days ago about how big WRs have been overrepresented among superstars. A slightly different way to carve things up is to look at WRs who both were big and had reasonably good college production. If we use 6'4" and 210 lbs. as the cutoff for big (excluding the skinny guys like Justin Hunter as well as the not-very-tall) and use a career production score of 4.0 as the cutoff for good college production (which is roughly the cutoff that my WR rating formula has, insofar as it has something like a "cutoff", on a scale where 0 is average and Butler has a 10.5), then Butler is (likely to become) the 8th WR since 2006 who qualifies. Ranked by college production, they are:

Danario Alexander    Missouri    2010    (6'4.6", 215 lbs.)
Mike Evans    Texas A&M    2014    (6'4.8", 231 lbs.)
Hakeem Butler    Iowa State    2019    (est. 6'4.8", 225 lbs.)
Stephen Hill    Ga Tech    2012    (6'4.0", 215 lbs.)
James Hardy    Indiana    2008    (6'5.4", 217 lbs.)
Maurice Stovall    Notre Dame    2006    (6'5", 217 lbs.)
Calvin Johnson    Georgia Tech    2007    (6'5", 239 lbs.)
Brandon Marshall    Central Florida    2006    (6'4.5", 229 lbs.)

That's 3/7 studs, which is a pretty good hit rate, and within this group Butler is 3rd in production, tied for 4th in height, and 4th in weight - average or better. Some of these guys did have other strong signs about whether they'd be NFL stars which aren't captured here - Calvin Johnson's amazing athleticism, Stephen Hill's horrible hands, Danario Alexander's knee problems; that still leaves a couple stars (Evans & Marshall) and a couple busts (Hardy & Stovall). Pretty good company for Butler.

I think the biggest negative sign for Butler is the combination of his age and one-year-wonderness. His May 1996 birthday makes him one of the older WRs in this class, about a year older than average, and it's presumably easier to put up big numbers when you're a man among boys (bigger and older than most other players). At ages 20 and 21 he didn't do all that much on the field, with just 41/697/7 in 13 games in 2017 - if he's so talented, why couldn't he do more than that?

Another negative is that he wasn't much of a red zone threat, despite his size. This year he had just 2 red zone TDs; granted the Iowa State offense didn't make it to the red zone all that often, but 2 red zone receiving TDs is not in the top 100 and his 2/9 market share of team red zone receiving TDs is also below average. Though I didn't watch the tape - maybe he was getting double teamed a lot?

But on the whole Butler's profile is extremely impressive, and if I had to rank WRs without seeing other experts' evaluations then I'd probably have him at #2 behind AJ Brown.
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ZWK said:
Hakeem Butler is huge. 6'5.375" in height, 35.125" arm length. That gives him more length (height+arm) than any notable WR that I know of (though my records of arm length data are spotty, especially from more than a few years ago). These are the guys I know of who are at least 110" in length:

112.5    Hakeem Butler (6'5.4", 35.1" arms)
112.5    Ramses Barden (6'5.0", 34.5" arms)
111.9    Mike Evans (6'4.8", 35.1" arms)
111.9    Kelvin Benjamin (6'5.0", 34.8" arms)
111.4    Danario Alexander (6'4.6", 34.8" arms)
110.4    Calvin Johnson (6'5.0", 33.4" arms)
110.4    Marques Colston (6'5.0", 33.4" arms)

I do think that length matters more than height, since a person's hands are located at the ends of their arms rather than on top of their head. (And the data also seem to point in that direction, though it's hard to tell because there's such a strong correlation between height and length.)

Here are all the WRs at this combine over 108" in length:

112.6    Hakeem Butler     Iowa St.
110.9    Jazz Ferguson     Northwestern St. (LA)
110.3    D.K. Metcalf     Mississippi
110.1    Antoine Wesley     Texas Tech
110.0    Jamal Custis     Syracuse
109.3    Miles Boykin     Notre Dame
108.8    Jalen Hurd     Baylor
108.5    Tyre Brady     Marshall
108.5    Jamarius Way     South Alabama
108.4    Lil'Jordan Humphrey     Texas
108.3    Felton Davis     Michigan St.
108.3    Travis Fulgham     Old Dominion
108.1    Emmanuel Butler     Northern Arizona
108.1    Jaylen Smith     Louisville

Also very good news for Metcalf, who comes in with Calvin/Colston size thanks to long arms.

Lil'Jordan littler than expected. I don't know anything about Ferguson. Wesley has the downside of low BMI.
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So usually that stuff is fluff but I do really, really, really love the fact he’s being mentored by Calvin Johnson.

 
Been waiting for this post @Faust  :)

I don't watch much college football but about 2-3 years ago I was half-watching an ISU game on ESPN and saw this kid in his first year and was just wowed. Same way I felt about AJ Green at Georgia. Just screamed superstar. Kind of figured once he hit the combine he'd have freakish measurables and shoot up boards.

I expect him to go late first.

Would LOVE for him to go to Seattle. Seems custom built for Wilson's sandlot scramble and rainbow bomb game. I know the lazy driveby analysis is "Seattle doesn't throw" but you don't have to go far back to see seasons where PC was relying heavily on RW.

 
Hakeem is a guy I am interested in if he goes to the right situation/QB.  

An aggressive QB who will allow him to make contested catches would be great.

 
I usually focus more on positive traits over negative.  More interested in the good things a player can do then the things they don't do so well.  Saying that his highlights do look amazing but I'm concerned and baffled how a player with such massive hands could have a drop for every 5 catches he makes.

 
menobrown said:
I usually focus more on positive traits over negative.  More interested in the good things a player can do then the things they don't do so well.  Saying that his highlights do look amazing but I'm concerned and baffled how a player with such massive hands could have a drop for every 5 catches he makes.
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It is on a case-by-case basis but one year ago Baltimore had a WR who the drafted in the 1st round in 2016.  He lead the league in dropped passes and had the lowest grade by PFF.  The WR was Breshard Perryman, he was considered a bust and the Ravens cut him.  The Browns picked him up and their were low expectations.

Perryman suddenly learned how to catch and flashed his potential as a deep threat with his 4.2 speed coupled with his 6.2 height.  He overtook rookie WR Calloway as Baker Mayfield's deep threat and he has gone from bust to a legit sleeper.

An accurate QB and an offensive system/role that suits a player can help along with coaches who understand how to properly use physical skills.  

 
Bracie Smathers said:
It is on a case-by-case basis but one year ago Baltimore had a WR who the drafted in the 1st round in 2016.  He lead the league in dropped passes and had the lowest grade by PFF.  The WR was Breshard Perryman, he was considered a bust and the Ravens cut him.  The Browns picked him up and their were low expectations.

Perryman suddenly learned how to catch and flashed his potential as a deep threat with his 4.2 speed coupled with his 6.2 height.  He overtook rookie WR Calloway as Baker Mayfield's deep threat and he has gone from bust to a legit sleeper.

An accurate QB and an offensive system/role that suits a player can help along with coaches who understand how to properly use physical skills.  
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Perriman also spent some time with Washington but either way this seems like a bizarre comp and impossible sales job here if Perriman is suppossed to give me confidence that Butler won’t drop passes. 

 
menobrown said:
Perriman also spent some time with Washington but either way this seems like a bizarre comp and impossible sales job here if Perriman is suppossed to give me confidence that Butler won’t drop passes. 
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Yes, and he failed at both of those locations but put together impressive games over the final month last year so what changed?

Coaches, system, QB, role. 

Baker Mayfield started out with his WRs leading the NFL in dropped passes when he initially took over as the starter but things changed.  New HC and OC, better use of protection schemes and Baker learned where to locate the ball and the WRs had one of the lower drops rates in the league by the end of the year.  

 
Bracie Smathers said:
It is on a case-by-case basis but one year ago Baltimore had a WR who the drafted in the 1st round in 2016.  He lead the league in dropped passes and had the lowest grade by PFF.  The WR was Breshard Perryman, he was considered a bust and the Ravens cut him.  The Browns picked him up and their were low expectations.

Perryman suddenly learned how to catch and flashed his potential as a deep threat with his 4.2 speed coupled with his 6.2 height.  He overtook rookie WR Calloway as Baker Mayfield's deep threat and he has gone from bust to a legit sleeper.

An accurate QB and an offensive system/role that suits a player can help along with coaches who understand how to properly use physical skills.  
Click to expand...
He had 16 catches last year, let's not get carried away with what Perriman did last year. 

 
Bracie Smathers said:
It is on a case-by-case basis but one year ago Baltimore had a WR who the drafted in the 1st round in 2016.  He lead the league in dropped passes and had the lowest grade by PFF.  The WR was Breshard Perryman, he was considered a bust and the Ravens cut him.  The Browns picked him up and their were low expectations.

Perryman suddenly learned how to catch and flashed his potential as a deep threat with his 4.2 speed coupled with his 6.2 height.  He overtook rookie WR Calloway as Baker Mayfield's deep threat and he has gone from bust to a legit sleeper.

An accurate QB and an offensive system/role that suits a player can help along with coaches who understand how to properly use physical skills.  
Click to expand...


Are we using WR91 Perriman (in the 2nd half of the season.  He literally did nothing the first half) as an example of a WR success story?

 
Bronco Billy said:
Are we using WR91 Perriman (in the 2nd half of the season.  He literally did nothing the first half) as an example of a WR success story?
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He was cut by Baltimore on September 1st, signed by Washington on September 18 and then cut on the 24th and then was signed by the Browns on October 13th.  He did not play at all until the 24th of October and only had 2 targets until November 4th.  Over his first 6 starts he only had 8 receptions for 107 yards with 0 TDs.

His catch rate in Baltimore was 28.6%, the worst in the league in 2017.  He only had 10 catches for 77 yards with 0 TDs and started 3 games.

His catch rate with the Browns last year was 64%.  He and he only started 2 games.

  • Over the final 4 games Breshard Perriman had 8 receptions for 233 yards with 2 TDs on only 12 targets.
  • Over the final 4 games Antonio Callaway had 10 receptions for 114 yards with 2 TDs on 16 targets.
  • Over the final 4 games Rashard Higgines had 19 receptions for 195 yards with 1 TD on 19 targets
  • Over the final 4 games Jarvis Landry had 15 receptions for 251 yards with 2 TDs on 29 targets.
Only 18 less yards than Pro Bowl WR Jarvis Landry with the same TD numbers on 17 less targets over the final 4 games.  He put up better numbers than any Brown WR over the final four games.

Perriman didn't produce until the second half of the season because he wasn't playing.  He stepped up over the final four games where he was producing more on less targets. 

----------------------------

Back on topic to Hakeem Butler.

Hakeem has 110 catches for 2,149 yards and 60 of them came last year for 1,318.  He's got 18 TDs in his career and half came last year.  He has 10 6/8 inch hands and a wingspan of 83 7/8 inches so I would imagine his catch radius is much larger than other WRs which would mean he attempts receptions that others don't or can't which would lead to more drops.

 
Ok, this is fluff and not really tangible to anything which I keep doing because I really like Butler but from his interview yesterday: “you think there has been a lot of buzz about me? I don’t think there has been enough but we’re about to fix that soon.” 

 
Iowa State WR Hakeem Butler ran the 40-yard dash in 4.48 seconds at the NFL Scouting Combine.

Wide receiver runs on Saturday have been very, very interesting, to say the least. Three players who faced real speed questions -- Butler, N'Keal Harry, Miles Boykin -- all rocked times under 4.60 seconds, with both Butler and Boykin dropping under 4.50 seconds (Boykin ran his in 4.42 seconds). The 6-foot-5, 227-pound Butler comes equipped with absurdly large hands (10 6/8 inches) and an absurdly long wingspan (83 7/8 inches) which allow him to make contested catches look like a breeze. Change of agility drills will be key to his chances of legitimately working his way into the Day 1 conversation.

SOURCE: NFL.com
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Bojang0301 said:
Ok, this is fluff and not really tangible to anything which I keep doing because I really like Butler but from his interview yesterday: “you think there has been a lot of buzz about me? I don’t think there has been enough but we’re about to fix that soon.” 
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My WR 2 or 3 right now

 
NFL teams asked Iowa State WR Hakeem Butler to participate in tight end drills at the NFL Scouting Combine.

Butler (6'5/227) did not appease whichever team(s) asked him. Quite frankly, that was a borderline insulting thing to ask a wide receiver of his caliber. Of course, Butler has the height to be a tight end, but Butler has more than enough speed (4.48) to have every shot at playing wide receiver at the NFL. After walking away from the NFL Scouting Combine as a winner, Butler now has an outside shot at sneaking into the very end of Round 1.

SOURCE: NFL Draft on Twitter

Mar 2, 2019, 6:52 PM
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Dr. Dan said:
I have q feeling he goes to Cleveland... I'd take him over Harry in that case 
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I don't believe one should always base their drafting decisions on landing spots.  I sure as hell can eliminate some players because of landing spots, but not always take one player over another because of it.

 
JohnnyU said:
I don't believe one should always base their drafting decisions on landing spots.  I sure as hell can eliminate some players because of landing spots, but not always take one player over another because of it.
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Cleveland is an upcoming offense missing a true #1WR. Many of these guys may be drafted into scenarios where they are a WR2

I'm not saying I would draft any WR selected by CLE high. I'm saying I like Butler, and if he is drafted by Cleveland I am likely moving him up my draft board considerably due to a huge opportunity to carve out a WR1 role. 

 
Dr. Dan said:
Cleveland is an upcoming offense missing a true #1WR. Many of these guys may be drafted into scenarios where they are a WR2

I'm not saying I would draft any WR selected by CLE high. I'm saying I like Butler, and if he is drafted by Cleveland I am likely moving him up my draft board considerably due to a huge opportunity to carve out a WR1 role. 
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That's cool, but I do notice you seem to base one player over another MOST of the time on landing spot.  I believe at some point the talent of one player has to trump the talent over another regardless of landing spot, and I'm not talking about differences between fringe players and top talent..

When talking about the differences between Butler and Harry, if neither land in a horrible spot I believe you have to take the one with the most talent.  Most believe that is Harry, but I also have my doubts.

 
Last edited by a moderator:
JohnnyU said:
That's cool, but I do notice you seem to base one player over another MOST of the time on landing spot.  I believe at some point the talent of one player has to trump the talent over another regardless of landing spot, and I'm not talking about differences between fringe players and top talent..

When talking about the differences between Butler and Harry, if neither land in a horrible spot I believe you have to take the one with the most talent.  Most believe that is Harry, but I also have my doubts.
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I think there are 3 or 4 wrs who are very very close, and the decision for me may be landing spot. 

Assuming landing spot is equal among the top wrs, it would be a very hard decision. If I had to rank my WRs right now: Metcalf, Harry, Butler, Brown. But things could change quickly. I want to move Metcalf down but I cant bring myself to

 
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