Shortly after the NFL owners voted in favor of overhauling the kickoff rules for the 2024 season, the Pittsburgh Steelers went out and signed one of the best return specialists in the history of the game in Cordarrelle Patterson. Prior to the signing, Mike Tomlin spoke to the media and said that the pending rule change would have an effect on the importance of the play, and in turn change teams’ approach to roster construction surrounding their special teams units.
The new rule will give the coverage team less of a running start in an effort to eliminate large collisions that pose a safety risk to players. It also makes a touchback start at the 30-yard line rather than the 25, as it had been since 2016. Neither team can begin moving until the ball either hits the ground or the returner fields the ball.
Before, the returner would have to navigate traffic through players who had already built up significant speed running down the field. Now they will begin moving at the same time as everybody else. This will more than likely result in significantly more big kick return plays throughout the NFL this season.
Patterson holds the all-time record for kick return touchdowns with nine, and he has the third-best average return with 29.3 yards per attempt.
Here are two angles of the same play from his rookie season in 2013, a 109-yard kick return for a touchdown against the Green Bay Packers. He did a great job maintaining his speed while he worked his way through the crowd and made very subtle cuts to slightly adjust his path, which helped him evade tacklers. His 40-yard dash back at the NFL Scouting Combine in 2013 was 4.42. That is fast for a guy his size, but there are certainly faster guys on the field. He maximizes every bit of that 4.42 speed by staying in stride with very little wasted movement in his cuts.
This one was 95 yards as a member of the Patriots in 2018. Look at his awareness on that cut to avoid the tackle and force the coverage player to whiff. He got back up to speed quickly and took a wide angle to give himself space to build back up his speed.
At 30 years old with the Atlanta Falcons, he went for 103 yards. He read the blocks well and kicked it into high gear to blow past the coverage.
Beyond his kick return abilities, Patterson was used as a wide receiver over the course of his first eight seasons in the league, and more recently switched to running back with the Falcons under Arthur Smith. He has 514 rushing attempts for 2,511 yards and 22 touchdowns, and another 298 receptions for 2,795 yards and 16 touchdowns through the air.
On this play, he followed the pulling center and almost outran his block to the outside to force the defender to commit before breaking down his feet and cutting upfield.
His ability to see through crowds and identify his greatest threat shows in the kick return game and with the ball in his hands as a running back. The linebacker was hidden behind three linemen and didn’t really show himself in the hole until the last second, but Patterson was ready and leaped over the arm tackle. He probably could have taken it to the house, but he bent back inside on the wrong side of his block.
And here, against the Steelers in 2022, he executed the outside zone perfectly, pressing the line of scrimmage to force the defenders to come downhill before bending it back the other way. It would have been a big gain if Terrell Edmunds hadn’t made a crazy athletic play from the backside.
Patterson wasn’t used as much on offense in 2023 under Smith as the head coach, so there are some questions about how effective he can be one year older. But he will be playing under a more favorable set of rules as a returner, and still offers value there. The Steelers already have two solid running backs ahead of him on the depth chart, so he likely won’t see much work there, but it is valuable to have a special teamer who can step in as the backup in case of injury. Especially one who knows the offense that Smith is likely to implement. The Steelers had some of the worst starting field position in the league last season. Hopefully Patterson can be a part of turning that around.
