The Pittsburgh Steelers wasted no time once the league approved the revision of kickoff rules in late March with signing the most prolific return specialist in the history of the league with Cordarrelle Patterson. He will obviously be the team’s top return man, but will his role go beyond that with any snaps on offense? One Steelers insider doesn’t think so.
“I’m not convinced Cordarrelle Patterson will be much of a factor on offense at all,” Pittsburgh Post-Gazette’s Brian Batko said on his weekly Steelers chat this morning. “If he is, running back [not wide receiver].”
Patterson signed a two-year, $6 million contract with the Steelers and has been used in a variety of ways on offense over the course of his career. He was drafted in the first round by the Minnesota Vikings to play wide receiver, but never excelled in that role. Later in his career he started being used more in the slot and eventually took on more of a running back role.
He spent the last three seasons with the Atlanta Falcons, so we have some very easy dots to connect back to his usage under Arthur Smith. Here is a breakdown of his snaps by position.
| Year | Backfield | Inline | Slot | Wide |
| 2021 | 294 | 15 | 65 | 97 |
| 2022 | 304 | 1 | 35 | 42 |
| 2023 | 85 | 6 | 31 | 55 |
| Total | 683 | 22 | 131 | 194 |
So up until the Falcons drafted Bijan Robinson eighth overall in 2023, Patterson was playing a fair number of snaps at running back. His usage as a receiver declined after his first season there, but then settled to about the same level over the last two years. And what was his production like in those roles?
| Year | Carries | Rush Yards | Receptions | Rec. Yards |
| 2021 | 153 | 618 | 52 | 548 |
| 2022 | 144 | 695 | 21 | 122 |
| 2023 | 50 | 181 | 9 | 38 |
| Total | 347 | 1,494 | 82 | 708 |
The first season he played under Smith in Atlanta, he had over 1,000 total yards of offense. Over the course of the next two seasons, that took a significant hit and ended with just 219 total yards. Again, this is probably due to the other weapons the Falcons added and not having enough touches to go around between Tyler Allgeier and Robinson, but it also has to do with his age, Patterson now 33 years old.
The Steelers have their own one-two punch with Najee Harris and Jaylen Warren, so he might take a similar backseat in 2024 in terms of his role on offense. For what it’s worth, The Athletic’s Mike DeFabo posted a clip of him working with the running backs during the first day of mandatory minicamp.
KR/ RB/ WR Cordarrelle Patterson working with the RBs today pic.twitter.com/z8K0Mk1rWi
— Mike DeFabo (@MikeDeFabo) June 11, 2024
If anything, Patterson provides some versatility. He will be getting helmets on gameday for kick returns, so he will always be an option to fill in if an injury happens in the middle of a game. He also knows some of what Arthur Smith likes to do on offense, though it will certainly be a little different in Pittsburgh.
There is also the possibility that his role as a return specialist becomes too important to increase injury risk on offense. For all of these reasons, chances seem good we don’t see much more than the 59 touches he received on offense in 2023. Though Broderick Jones did say that Patterson could be a “great asset” for the offense, so we’ll just have to wait and see.
