Seattle Trades Fifth, Seventh and 2010 Third Round Pick for Deon Butler, WR, Penn State

Seattle has traded its fifth round pick, seventh round pick and 2010 third round pick to trade into the third and draft Deon Butler, wide receiver, Penn State.

Wow, here's someone in my blind spot. Butler was a four year starter at Penn State. He was reasonably productive, starting his Lions career with three straight 600+ yard seasons before breaking out a bit with a 47 reception, 810 yard, 7 touchdown performance as a senior. He was the fourth fastest receiver at the NFL Combine and the fourth fastest player at any position. He also showed good agility skills (7.01 3-cone) and decent leaping ability (34.5" vert).

He's slight, carrying 182 on his 5'10" frame. That makes scouts think he's strictly a slot receiver. Here's something to whet your appetite.

I'll update this when I have more information.

Update: Here's a video scouting report:

And an interesting test for my yard per attempt stat. Butler rates poorly.

Butler faced eight top 30 opponents over the last three years. All but USC shut him down. But, and it's a huge but, all but USC completely shut down Penn State's entire passing offense. In four games, the Lions passed for fewer than 150 yards and only against USC did they throw for more than 200 yards. So this could be an example of total system failure. Nevertheless, that's at least partly on Butler.

Targets: 36

Percentage of team targets: 15.9%

Percentage of team yards: 19.9%

Catch percentage: 63.8%

Yards per target: 6.86

He also recorded two offensive pass interference penalties and one personal foul. Here's how I interpret this. Butler struggles against man cover. He will struggle to get open in the pros against man cover. He will need to match against zones to be productive. We shall see. I have some tape ready of him and will watch it.

Update II: Doug says the scouts he's talked to love this pick and points out something from TTFY Draft that I love, love, love. Have I mentioned how much I love good route runners?

Route running: This is what Butler does best -- run crisp routes while showing the lateral agility and balance to elude after the catch. He is sharp in his cuts and does a nice job of sinking his weight to get under most balls thrown to him in the short-to-intermediate areas. He shows tight hips in his patterns, but has the body control to separate. He maintains eye contact with the backfield to work back for the ball and is very effective locating and settling into the zone's soft areas. He is showing a good ability to sell his fakes and even though he is used mostly as a zone route runner, he works hard in his patterns and is quick to find the open area. He has the ability to stick and define his cuts and shows decent acceleration in the open.