Dallas Cowboys: Can Brice Butler be a spark plug?

After officially announcing that he will be rejoining the Dallas Cowboys on Tuesday, can wideout Brice Butler be the spark plug Dallas needs?

Two games into their 2018 season the Dallas Cowboys realized an upgrade was needed at the wide receiver position. Ranking 31st in receiving yards per game and 29th in receptions per game was clearly not good enough for the Cowboys, as Dallas turned to an old friend, wide receiver Brice Butler, to attempt to elevate their receiving corps.

Butler signed with the Arizona Cardinals this offseason, but was unable to make the team coming out of training camp and was one of their final cuts. In 2017, Butler had a fairly productive year in Dallas. He reeled in 15 receptions for 317 yards and three touchdowns. While these numbers will not blow you away, it was evident to those who watched when Butler was on the field he made plays.

He was clearly the teams best deep threat receiver down the field, and it showed in him averaging 21.1 yards per catch, best on the team among wide receivers. Through two games this season excluding a 64-yard touchdown catch from Tavon Austin against the Giants, Dallas receivers have only one catch of 20 or more yards from Allen Hurns.

Now, this may be a result of the Cowboys offense not being built on throwing the ball deep down the field, but against New York on Sunday Dallas did call a fair amount of passes that went fairly deep downfield.

If there was one thing Brice Butler did bring to the table it was his ability to make plays deep down the field, which is arguably the thing the Cowboys lack most on their current offense. Butler is not going to come in and be a superstar and catch 80 passes for 1,000 yards or some other crazy stat like that, but what he can do is be a nice vertical threat and be a weapon in the red zone.

Quarterback Dak Prescott and Butler also had a very nice rapport, maybe the best out of any Cowboys receiver. The pair connected on 66% of their passes in 2017, a very solid number.              The Cowboys do not need Brice Butler to be Superman, but he very well may be a vertical downfield player that provides the spark the Dallas offense has been looking for so far this season.