The Pittsburgh Steelers signed veteran KR/RB Cordarrelle Patterson to a two-year contract last week and finally the details related to that deal have surfaced. As previously reported, that deal totaled out at $6 million overall.
Patterson’s deal, according to the NFLPA database, includes a signing bonus of $1.9 million and base salaries in 2024 and 2025 of $1.3 million and $2.8 million, respectively. This structure results in the 2024 and 2025 cap charges for Patterson being $2.25 million and $3.75 million, respectively.
The cash flow for Patterson is a little heavy to the year-one side of the deal as he’ll get $3.2 million in 2024 and $2.8 million in 2025. That’s not a surprising split overall due to him being a veteran.
Patterson enters the Steelers’ Rule 51 with his cap charge and displaces a player with a salary of $915,000. This means that the Steelers effectively used $1.335 million in available salary cap space to sign Patterson.
For his NFL career to date, Patterson, who was originally selected by the Minnesota Vikings in the first round of the 2013 NFL Draft out of Tennessee, has registered 2,511 yards rushing and 22 touchdowns on 514 total carries. He also has 298 total regular season receptions for 2,795 yards and another 16 touchdowns. As a kickoff returner, Patterson has 273 of them to date for 7,989 yards and nine touchdowns. He has also returned one punt for nine yards during his NFL career.
The steelers primarily signed Patterson to be their kickoff returner in 2024 in addition to letting him serve as an experienced backup running back to Najee Harris and Jaylen Warren. Patterson spent his last three seasons with the Atlanta Falcons, where he played for new Steelers offensive coordinator Arthur Smith.
