Early in the season, Pittsburgh Steelers RB/KR Cordarrelle Patterson looked like a great addition. Patterson’s speed and quickness helped in the first few weeks when RB Jaylen Warren still wasn’t fully healthy from a preseason hamstring injury and subsequent knee injury. Then Patterson injured his ankle against the Indianapolis Colts, and he hasn’t looked the same since.
Since Patterson returned from injury against the Washington Commanders two weeks ago, the speed he showed against the Colts has been nowhere to be found. Patterson looks like a shell of his former self on kickoffs, and when given the ball on offense, he lacks the burst that made him look really good earlier this year.
This was extremely apparent against the Cleveland Browns on Thursday night when Patterson took a jet sweep in the red zone and tried to turn upfield but lacked the burst. The play resulted in a loss of two in a crucial part of the game, as Pittsburgh needed to get in the end zone. Patterson looked much slower than he did against Indianapolis, where he had 7.2 yards per carry.
Admittedly, the blocking on the play was not great, and it really was not a good play call. However, a pre-injury Patterson likely gets at least a few yards on the play. Steelers beat writer Ray Fittipaldo was on 93.7 The Fan earlier this week and while he questioned the play call, he also noted how different Patterson has looked since his ankle injury.
“I have no idea what they’re doing with Cordarrelle Patterson,” said Fittipaldo. “He’s not the same player he was before that ankle injury. Everyone in that stadium could see they were setting up that sort of jet motion, wide reverse at some point. The Browns sniffed it out. They were trying to set it up all game, and you want to run that on the five-yard line? In a goal-to-go situation? I mean, that was awful.”
Against the Colts and Los Angeles Chargers, Patterson was Pittsburgh’s most explosive runner, even if he didn’t get many carries. Now, that explosiveness is gone. Trying to get Patterson to the outside isn’t working, and until he regains the burst he had pre-ankle injury, those types of plays need to be canned.
With running backs Najee Harris and Jaylen Warren, Cordarrelle Patterson not being super effective on offense isn’t a huge problem. He was never supposed to have a huge role there. However, the bigger problem is that he looks terrible on kickoffs. Patterson was supposed to be a big addition on kickoffs with the new rules. However, he’s having difficulty getting upfield due to his lack of speed right now. One five returns (all coming post-injury), Patterson is averaging just 19 yards, the lowest mark of his career.
In comparison, Warren is averaging 24.2 kick return yards per return on five attempts. Warren looks noticeably faster and quicker than Patterson on kick returns. Given the new rules, Patterson’s tough time getting up the field could cause the Steelers’ offense to start in bad field position as opposing special teams target him.
Hopefully, this isn’t the Cordarrelle Patterson we see for the rest of the season. Neither Patterson nor Pittsburgh ever released what his ankle injury was, but it did cause him to miss four games. Maybe it will just take time for Patterson to regain his burst from whatever his ankle injury was, and by the end of the season, he will return to how he looked pre-injury. Right now, Patterson is having difficulty positively impacting games for the Steelers.
