There comes a point where playing for Antonio Pierce previously isn’t going to be quite good enough.
Darien Butler has entered that territory.
The third-year linebacker initially made the Las Vegas Raiders as an undrafted free agent in 2022. And the Arizona State product earned the opportunity to be coached Pierce (then Las Vegas’ linebackers coach) reuniting the duo to their Sun Devil days. Butler went on to play 15 games (no starts) for the Raiders his rookie season and totaled 11 tackles. He ended up playing just 21 snaps on defense but was a special teams mainstay playing 271 snaps there.