The Pittsburgh Steelers signed Cordarrelle Patterson in response to perhaps the biggest change to the kickoff in NFL history. The league aimed to make it more of a football play once again while still protecting players. The biggest difference is lowering the speed and velocity of the play by setting the coverage close to the return.
Patterson admittedly has “mixed feelings” about the rule change, and that’s no surprise. Even though returners saw fewer and fewer opportunities to actually bring one out, he made a career the old way. And the fact of the matter is that the new play design is a big question mark. The entire league will be figuring out exactly how it works together.
But there’s also plenty of reason for excitement, and Patterson sees the big-play potential in it. “I mean, hell yeah”, he said on Thursday, via the team’s website. “Once you get past that first wave, it’s over with me and the kicker. And I like my chances with me 100 times out of 100”.
“They better do a good job of fielding that ball and not getting it right to us”, Patterson added about the kicking team, “because we’ve got a great plan. I’m excited for the opportunity to try to show the world that this new rule don’t [negatively] affect me or my teammates in any way”.
Cordarrelle Patterson owns a career 29.3-yard kick return average. Over 11 seasons, he has returned 273 kicks for 7,989 yards, including nine touchdowns. But his opportunities to return kicks have plummeted the past three years, so he is excited about more chances.
In 2020, for example, Patterson led the NFL with 35 returns for 1,017 yards, scoring once. Over the past three seasons, he has returned a total of 34 kicks for 871 yards, averaging 25.6 yards. A six-time All-Pro return man, he knows few have more at stake under the new rule.
After all, he is nearing the end of his career at 33. He isn’t likely to be a significant offensive contributor. Without the resurrection of the kick return, there is no way the Steelers sign Patterson to a two-year, $6 million deal.
The league’s new rule makes it more painful for kicking teams to accept touchbacks. Leaguewide, 73 percent of all kickoffs went for touchbacks in 2023. Compare that to 2019, during which Patterson recorded over 1,000 return yards, when the rate was 60.9.
How the new play works out will be interesting to see. Because of the closer proximity of the coverage unit, we could see a lot of returns stopped inside the 20-yard line. But for the same reason, there is a much higher potential for home runs for players like Cordarrelle Patterson.
On traditional returns, where you’re sprinting from the opposing 35-yard line, you can layer your coverage. You can’t really do that lining up from the return side’s 40-yard line with blockers five yards away. Without that layering, you run the risk of allowing the returner to escape through your lines, all the way into your end zone.
Hell yeah. At least, that’s what Patterson and the Steelers are hoping to say a few times this year.
