Cordarrelle Patterson kept running past people and eventually found his best position

Cordarrelle Patterson’s NFL career started with him as a purple haze for the Minnesota Vikings.

In the second game of his rookie season, he took the opening kick 105 yards for a touchdown. at week 8, he tied the NFL record for longest game in league history by taking the opening kickoff 109 meters to the house. The 6-foot-2, 216-pound rookie, who clocked in at 4.42 in the 40-yard dash and made a 37-inch vertical jump at the scouting combination, scoring nine touchdowns in 2013. Patterson would certainly have a promising career in store if he played this well after just one season with Tennessee that was preceded by two years of junior college football.

For a while, he was mainly an ace for special teams used in gadget games. As a kick returner, he was great—four-time All-Pro—but he was never able to convert that ideal size and speed into a consistent threat as a wide receiver. He bounced through the league for several years – with stops in Oakland, New England and Chicago – before signing with the Atlanta Falcons in 2021. At the end of that season, the players voted him on the NFL Top 100 list for the first time in his career – No. 73.

The Falcons have finally found a way to make Patterson a constant threat to the attack. He still pulled some kick-backs for the Falcons, but his 18 returns that season were: the least of his career. Patterson did his damage on offense, totaling 1,166 yards from scrimmage and scoring 11 touchdowns in 2021. The Falcons decided to go all in on a strategy other teams used only sparingly — they started Patterson running back.

During his lone season with the New England Patriots in 2018, they began experimenting with him in the backfield as a real part of the running game rather than just on jet sweeps. When he signed with the Chicago Bears, they took it one step further. In his second season with them, he carried the ball 64 times.

Then Bears’ head coach Matt Nagy saw potential in Patterson as a running back. So when quarterback coach Dave Ragone was promoted to passing game coordinator in 2020, Nagy asked him to take some one on one time with Patterson, according to The Athletic’s Dan Pompei, and help turn that athleticism that was so confusing for so many teams into a running back. When Ragone got the job as Atlanta Falcons offensive coordinator in 2021, he took Patterson with him.

A look at Patterson’s Reference for professional football shows that the only years he is listed as a running back being his two with the Falcons. He was their leading rusher in 2021 with 153 carries for 618 yards and six touchdowns. That didn’t mean his pass-catching days were behind him, though. In fact, 2021 was his best season and did what the Vikings wanted him to do when they drafted him in the first round in 2013. Patterson tied his career high in receptions with 52, but this time he averaged 10.7 yards per reception and netted five. touchdowns – also a career high.

Patterson picks up where he left off this season. In the Falcons’ nerve-wracking 27-26 season opening loss to the New Orleans Saints, he had the best day of his career, running the ball 22 times for 120 yards and a touchdown.

Most NFL players don’t get the chance to reinvent themselves six seasons into their career. Fortunately for Patterson, as an athletic specimen, he stands out in a room full of them. His athleticism is so special that, having been declared a disappointment and a failure by some, at age 31, Patterson is now one of the more unique offensive weapons in the NFL.

It’s proof that if you’re able to return a 109-yard kickoff in an NFL game, you’ll stick around long enough and the game will evolve into a place where it’ll find the best roll for you.