The Pittsburgh Steelers signed Cordarrelle Patterson to return kicks, the timing making that obvious. He signed a two-year, $6 million contract on the same day the NFL passed a new kickoff rule. And yet, special teams coordinator Danny Smith plays coy about who is going to have the job. Is he insane, or is there a legitimate possibility they could go another route?
“That’s my only level of skepticism with bringing in Patterson for this job. Number one, he was pretty pedestrian last year, stats-wise”, Brian Batko points out on the North Shore Drive podcast. “I’m not trying to write the guy’s obituary as a return man or anything like that, but he is getting up there in age. He’s [33] now—generally accepted wisdom that you lose a step the older that you get”.
Patterson is the most accomplished kick returner in NFL history, but he averaged 21.9 yards per return in 2023. If you control for outliers by removing the longest and shortest returns, he is averaging 23.9 over the past two seasons. He had a 103-yard touchdown in 2022, but that stands in contrast to his play-to-play performance. So who could potentially challenge for the job?
“Guys like Calvin Austin with 4.3-type speed, that’s partially what they were brought in to do as well”, Batko said regarding options other than Patterson. “Maybe there will be some level of competition. It’s interesting to me that Danny Smith said he has ‘no idea’ who will be returning kicks for him. Probably exaggerating on that and just doesn’t want to show his cards”.
Austin is a return man, but he has only returned punts and is presumably their punt returner this year. The new kickoff rule arguably makes the play somewhat more like a punt, though, without the threat of instant collision. Austin fair caught a lot of punts last year, but that wouldn’t be a problem on kick returns.
Batko did point out that Mike Tomlin cited being happy to have Cordarrelle Patterson when asked about the new rule. But he also questioned if, at 33 years old, Patterson still has “the juice” that made him great in the past. Calvin Austin III certainly has some juice, as Patrick Peterson learned last year.
I can offer another reason that Cordarrelle Patterson might not return all of the kicks, though. We don’t know what this play will look like in practice since they’ve never done it before. Perhaps they try it out with Patterson and they realize that it’s not working out. I’m sure they’re giving Austin and others looks.
Still, I think it’s unlikely that Patterson isn’t their return man, even if he has mixed feelings about the rule. While he might not be sure about the change, he doesn’t see himself differently. He is very confident that he can turn this into a more explosive play than it’s been in years.
