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Matt Patricia was coordinating the defense that didn’t need Malcolm Butler a little over month ago.

Now, he’s coaching a team that appears to want Malcolm Butler for the future.

According to Mike Giardi of NBC Sports Boston, the Lions are “quite interested” in the Patriots free agent cornerback, which would make for quite story.

To date, no one’s really come clean on why Butler was active but didn’t play a snap of defense in the Super Bowl, and it might not be the first thing Patricia is eager to talk about in his first offseason on his new job as head coach of the Lions if he is able to land Butler.

But it’s certainly a subplot, and the fact that Patricia’s interested in something Patriots coach Bill Belichick wasn’t only adds to the intrigue.

On its face, the interest makes sense, since the Lions wanted in on the Richard Sherman derby before Sherman decided not to make a derby of it. So they’re obviously looking for some cornerback help opposite Darius Slay, and may be looking at many others.

But few others would present the kind of curiosity as adding Butler.