Since he came into the NFL as a rookie in 2013 with the Vikings, Cordarrelle Patterson has been an electric talent.
The wide receiver-kick returner has scored seven touchdowns as receiver, four as a ball carrier and five on kickoffs.
Now, as Patterson goes through a three-day mandatory minicamp this week with his new Oakland Raiders teammates, his offensive coordinator is eager to plug into Patterson’s talents in any way possible in 2017.
“He’s a fun tool,” Todd Downing told Michael Ghelken of the Las Vegas Review-Journal. “I won’t speak too much about how he was used in the past. That’s somebody else’s job. But I can tell you that we’re going to have fun looking for ways to get him involved in the offense.
“He’s a big, strong, physical, dynamic-with-the-ball-in-his-hands type player, and we’re excited to see what he can do for us.”
The 6-foot-2, 216-pounder from Tennessee is coming off his best season as a receiver in the NFL. In 2016 he had 52 catches for 453 yards. He also led the NFL in average kick-return yards – for the third time – with a 31.7 average, including a 104-yard TD return.
Raiders special teams coordinator Brad Seely, like Downing, is excited to be able to see Patterson returning kicks this season – without overworking him.
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“Obviously in Minnesota he was an outstanding returner,” said Seely. “We feel like he can bring that to our table. He also can be a coverage guy for us on (the) punt team. And it always comes down to how much offense is he going to play. We want to keep our guys as fresh as possible and balance with getting as many reps out of them as we can.”
Zoltan Buday of the analytic website Pro Football Focus wrote this week that one of Patterson’s strengths is making tacklers miss. As a ballcarrier on reverses and mis-direction plays, he’s forced 29 missed tackles on 31 carries, Buday noted.
Added Buday: “Patterson’s elusiveness in the open field was used in the passing game too as precisely 25 percent of all his targets came on screen passes while he was with the Vikings. As a result, Patterson was always among the best receivers when it came to gaining yards with the ball in his hands and ranked sixth among receivers with at least 70 targets, with an average of 6.3 yards after the catch in 2016.”
On Wednesday, Patterson told the media he’s eager to see what the Raiders can do offensively in 2017 with so many playmakers: quarterback Derek Carr, receivers Michael Crabtree and Amari Cooper, tight ends Jared Cook and Clive Walford and running backs Marshawn Lynch, DeAndre Washington and Jalen Richard.
“It’s what we make of it,” said Patterson. “We got great guys all around the offense, in the backfield, running back, quarterback, the whole offensive line is great. So, it’s what we do with it. Sky’s the limit. We just can’t get the big head. You got to keep going out each and every day and just keep working.”
