Butler was born in Duluth, Georgia, and is the son of Kevin Butler, a former University of Georgia and NFL placekicker. He attended Peachtree Ridge High School in Suwanee, Georgia, and played high school football for the Peachtree Ridge Lions. As a junior, he averaged 40 yards per punt with a longest kick of 63 yards and 13 punts inside the 20-yard line. Following his senior season in 2006, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution and the Georgia Sports Writers Association named him to their Class 5A all-state first teams. Scout.com rated him as the No. 9 punter recruit in the nation. He also played Peachtree Ridge Lions golf team, while maintaining a 3.9 grade point average.
College career
Butler attended the University of Georgia, where he played for coach Mark Richt's Georgia Bulldogs football team from 2007 to 2011. He led the nation in punting average for the 2009 NCAA Division I FBS football season. He was selected as the first-team All-Southeastern Conference punter, and a unanimous first-team All-American, and he was the winner of the Ray Guy Award recognizing him as the best college punter in the nation. In 2010, Butler was selected as the second-team All-SEC punter by the coaches. He was a first-team All-American selection by Pro Football Weekly, a second-team choice by the Associated Press and CBS Sports, as well as an honorable mention selection by Sports Illustrated. He was a 2010 first-team Academic All-America selection. On December 6, 2011, he was honored as a National Football Foundation Scholar-Athlete Award recipient. He was also honored on that same day when he earned honorable mention All-SEC recognition by the Associated Press. On December 8, he repeated in 2011 as a first team Academic All-America selection.
Professional career
Pittsburgh Steelers
On April 28, 2012, following the 2012 NFL Draft, Butler was one of 12 undrafted free agent rookies signed by the Pittsburgh Steelers. He replaced the Steelers' injured incumbent starter Jeremy Kapinos and made the 53-man roster for the 2012 NFL season. During the 2012 season, Butler punted 77 times, and averaged 43.8 yards. For the 2013 NFL season he beat Brian Moorman in preseason to make the 53-man roster, but he was cut to make room for newly acquired Zoltan Mesko before the first week of play.
On December 31, 2013, Butler was signed to a future/reserve contract by the Chicago Bears. On May 18, Butler was released.
Detroit Lions
On July 25, 2014, Butler was signed by the Detroit Lions. The Lions released Butler on August 25, 2014.
Arizona Cardinals
Because of an injury to their regular punter, Dave Zastudil, the Cardinals signed Butler on September 8, 2014. Butler made his debut for the Cardinals later that same day in their 2014 season opener against the San Diego Chargers on ESPN's Monday Night Football. He was released on September 16, 2014. He was re-signed by the Cardinals on September 19, 2014 despite the blocked punts that he had for the team that season. Neither was attributed to the punter. On October 6, 2014, he became the starting punter after Dave Zastudil was placed on season-ending injured reserve. On October 4, 2016, Butler was released by the Cardinals. He was re-signed on November 15, 2016 and released again on December 13, 2016.
