One of the biggest surprises of recent weeks for the Arizona Cardinals was the sudden retirement of cornerback Malcolm Butler. Butler signed with the team as a free agent on a one-year contract and was expected to be a starter.

His decision to leave the team left the Cardinals in a bit of a bind.

We still do not know the reason for his departure but Albert Breer for SI.com did reveal an interesting thing about Butler in his recent mailbag.

It doesn’t explain his retirement but it does explain his usage in training camp and the preseason.

There were rumblings before this that Malcolm Butler couldn’t run anymore, and concern internally that his lost step would get magnified gradually, as the normal wear-and-tear of the season set in. 

Bree suggests that the Cardinals were preparing for this. That seems partially true. But his retirement was a surprise.

But this revelation explains why he was being used as CB3.

All offseason, in training camp and when he played in the preseason, he would be the third cornerback used.

Robert Alford and Byron Murphy would be the two on the field for base defenses. Murphy would slide over to the slot for nickel packages and Butler would enter and play on the boundary.

Butler was always listed as one of the two top cornerbacks on the depth chart.

It would appear that, using what we learn from Breer, it was a way to save Butler’s legs. Butler is a physical player and willing to tackle, but if the Cardinals were worried about his legs over the course of the year, it makes sense to bring him in on passing downs only to cut down his snaps from 25-45%, which is what would happen if he played only in nickel and dime sets.

That way, his effectiveness would remain high.

Only being on a one-year deal meant the Cardinals didn’t initially plan for him to be with the team more than this season so getting him through it healthy was critical.

This doesn’t appear to have any factor into his retirement but it does give us some insight as to how the cornerback rotation was going to look once the season began.

Instead of Butler, now it will be rookie Marco Wilson coming in on nickel downs.

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