The 2024 NFL season will be crucial for Buffalo Bills cornerback Kaiir Elam. After two extremely stressful and frequently disappointing seasons to begin his professional career, Elam spoke to media during this year’s OTAs about trusting and believing in himself more than ever.
Elam feels a sense of newfound opportunity. Jahmile Addae, the new cornerbacks coach, succeeds John Butler, who held the position for six seasons. Addae joins Buffalo’s defensive coaching staff as a whole new face at One Bills Drive, and he may provide a much-needed shift in coaching style for Elam.
It needs to be seen how much, if any, Addae’s coaching tactics differ from Butler’s. Addae, on the other hand, is ready to leave his own mark on the defensive secondary that Butler has left open.
The Bills and Butler’s relationship ended abruptly, with reports indicating that the two sides had mutually opted to separate ways. That split resulted from a season in which McDermott wanted to call defensive plays rather than appointing the veteran Butler (who also served as passing game coordinator).
McDermott’s decision to promote the inexperienced Bobby Babich to defensive coordinator is likely to exacerbate the situation. Babich comes from a coaching family; his father, Bob Babich, coached linebackers from 2017 to 2021 before his son took over. One might imagine McDermott being reluctant to lose another potentially promising coordinator (Babich) in favor of a known commodity (Butler).
So, why did John Butler leave the Bills? To everyone paying attention, Butler appeared to have just opted to quit after being passed over for the defensive coordinator position again.
Butler, for his part, told Tim Graham in a story for The Athletic that he simply wants to be a defensive coordinator in the NFL or college. Butler, at 51, is still too young to coach in the NFL, but the recent tendency has been to appoint young, relative unknowns as coordinators. Perhaps he believes the clock is ticking like never before?
Soon after Butler’s departure, he sent out a series of tweets praising the Bills’ defensive backs for their efforts over the course of six seasons under his leadership. Butler took a highly defensive tone, implying that he was anything but the problem.
There was, of course, one major concern about Butler’s coaching resume with the Bills. Despite such strong unit metrics and rankings, Elam, the team’s 2022 first-round pick, struggled to develop during Butler’s two seasons as coach. The natural reaction is to wonder whether the responsibility here falls mostly on Elam or Butler, or somewhere in between, involving a weakness in their connection.
True, a player’s shortcomings are not solely the responsibility of their coaches, but much of what occurs at an NFL team’s practice or behind closed doors is kept from outside observers. But not usually.
We understand that every story has at least two sides. Consider former Bills center Eric Wood’s thoughts on his most recent “Centered On Buffalo” podcast. Just before the 14-minute mark, Wood disclosed some interesting information about Elam and Butler’s coaching connection.
“I’m interested to see how he appears this year. I mean, it was quite widely known among folks who were around training camp workouts — you could see John Butler absolutely pounding this kid. He has said that he lacks confidence. He tried to recapture some of that at the conclusion of last year, when he had an interception in the playoffs.
He made several plays at the conclusion of the season, and perhaps he can carry that into the offseason. But I’m interested to see what he can achieve with a fresh position coach. Perhaps someone who consistently builds him up, as opposed to — I mean, and look… I am not in the building on a daily basis. I’m merely stating what I’ve seen and heard from folks who have witnessed practices and how he was treated by his position coach. So, I’m excited to see whether he can step it up this year and possibly fit into that first-round draft pick mold — which we all hoped for given his stature and skill set.
Again, we don’t know for certain whether Butler’s teaching method hampered Elam’s development as a player, but something needed to change. Was Elam the only player Butler consistently ripped up in practice?
The goal here is not to suggest that Butler’s coaching technique was incorrect. Obviously, the statistics he tweeted about play an important role in supporting his work and attitude. However, as defensive backs coach, Butler was unable to bring out the best in Elam.
As for his departure from Buffalo, it’s fair to question whether his tactics, specifically regarding Elam, played too big of a role in negatively shaping his future with the team. In Butler’s call to “Ask ANY DB I have coached” — what would Kaiir Elam say?
For One Bills Drive, there’s quite a bit at stake regarding Elam and his status as a first-round draft pick. Now that the dust has settled, Elam remains with the Bills, while Butler continues looking for his next opportunity.
Will Kaiir Elam and Jahmile Addae prove to be a perfect match — the winning formula? Elam believes there’s never been a better opportunity.
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