First and 10: Devin McCourty said as far as he knows, no disciplinary issue with Malcolm Butler benching in Super Bowl

Welcome to first and 10, a roundup of all the (mostly) Patriots-related news you need to start your day:



--Devin McCourty told NJ.com that the Patriots knew Malcolm Butler wasn't going to start in the Super Bowl, saying that as far as he knows, there's no deeper conspiracy out there about Butler not starting because of some sort of disciplinary issue. “We all knew (Butler) wasn’t starting all week," McCourty said. "That wasn’t a secret to the guys on the team. I get why people are fishing. The guy played 98 percent of the plays. I just hate that for him character-wise going into free agency. It’s just not true. As far as I know — and I was there all week — not one time did anything come up.”

--Robert Kraft was at the NBA All-Star Weekend festivities. And Malcolm Mitchell was at the Georgia-Tennessee game on Saturday.



—The franchise tag window opens Tuesday, but it’d be a surprise to see the Patriots use it. The only free agent who might have been tag-worthy would be left tackle Nate Solder, and he has a clause in his contract that says he can’t be tagged. Other than that, I honestly can’t see them using it on any of their other free agents. Leaguewide, Le’Veon Bell (Pittsburgh), Demarcus Lawrence (Dallas) and Andrew Norwell (Carolina) are the three likeliest candidates to get tagged.

--We’re big fans of the Next Gen Stats that are put out by the NFL, and this story uses those stats to look at the NFL’s most elusive running backs from 2017. No surprise that Dion Lewis is near the top of the list. Because of his unique skill set, I remain endlessly fascinated as to how free agency is going to shake out for Lewis.

—The Texans told linebacker Brian Cushing he’s going to be released. Honestly, I liked Cushing as a player, but he lost me the minute he started talking crap about Starbucks. Oh, and I’d be shocked if the Patriots were interested.



--Oklahoma quarterback Baker Mayfield wants to pick Tom Brady's brain. "I would love to see how he prepares during the week," Mayfield told the New York Post. "I’d love to just kind of sit back and watch him first, and then sit down and ask him questions about why. Because I know he does everything with a purpose, so it’d be great to learn from the greatest of all time."

--This is way overdue, but we wanted to acknowledge that Terrance "Pot Roast" Knighton has landed a coaching gig with Wagner College. In his relatively brief time with the Patriots, the Connecticut native was a guy who seemed genuinely excited to be playing in New England. Nice guy who sounds excited to start the next phase of his football life.

Now, let's get to the links...

1. My weekend notebook has updates on James Harrison, Andrew Jelks and a few other guys. There’s also the question — if you were a Patriots player and didn’t have to rewatch the Super Bowl, would you?

2. Greg said Bill Belichck isn’t going all-in for an elite pass rusher this offseason, but does include a list of a few possibilities who could fit in Foxborough.

3. My latest position-by-position review looks at the offensive line. (Defense starts later in Monday.)

4. The Patriots did Lawrence Guy a big favor.

5. Miguel delivered a mailbag chock full of information.