Butler played for Rams coach Steve Spagnuolo with the Giants, and the team's new safeties coach, Andre Curtis, was a defensive assistant with the Giants last season. The Giants haven't made re-signing Butler a priority.

"They told me they're going to let me try out free agency but to keep them posted on what I find out there," said Butler, who added that it's probable he would give the Giants an opportunity to match any offer he likes. "I'll give them that opportunity because I want to be here. And I'm going to let the Giants see what's out there and if they match it, great. If not, I've done all I can do in four years with the Giants."

Asked about the possibility of being with the Rams, Butler said, "That's an option. We know 'Spags' is a great coach and he did a great job with the Giants. I'm sure he'll do a great job with St. Louis, too. We'll see."

--It's been a whirlwind month for Rams general manager Billy Devaney and coach Steve Spagnuolo. After the hiring of Spagnuolo and the filling out of the coaching staff, those two and 42 other members of the organization headed to Indianapolis for the scouting combine.

The grind has resulted in Spagnuolo having little time to see tape of the Rams' roster, and Devaney has lost some time evaluating college players.

Devaney said, "We've got to get everybody, me included, up to speed. We're close, but we're not where we should be right now. So we've really got to cram, watching as much (tape) on top of the workouts while we're at the combine. We're going to be in the dome early in the morning before the workouts start, looking at videotape. And after the interviews, we'll look at more. Every spare minute, we're going to be either watching a prospect or looking at videotape. It's going to be more of a grind for us. Every spare minute is accounted for us."

As for the combine itself and its value, Devaney said, "Ninety-five percent of our evaluation is going to come off of watching the game tape. What you look for are extremes. If a receiver runs really, really slow, you want to find out why. Is there an injury? Is he sick? Maybe he's not as fast as you gave him credit for. You look for extremes in all of the events whether it's the vertical, the 40, the bench press. The numbers are important to a point but there's also a story behind the numbers which you have got to find out."

--S Oshiomogho Atogwe is one of 95 players who have enrolled in the NFL Business Management and Entrepreneurial Program at the Harvard Business School, Kellogg School of Management (Northwestern University), Stanford Graduate School of Business and the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania. Atogwe will attend the Kellogg Business School at Northwestern University, March 1-4.

The program is part of an ongoing NFL-NFLPA initiative to assist players in preparing for their post-playing careers. Since the program's 2005 inception, 407 players have participated in sessions at the four business schools.

QUOTE TO NOTE: "This is the fun part of the year. Free agency. Players on your own team that you have to make decisions on. The combine. Draft. Workouts. Shoot, you go a hundred miles an hour in all different directions. This is when it's really fun." -- General manager Billy Devaney.