Don’t expect to see Cordarrelle Patterson, a former All-Pro, returning kicks for the Steelers this year, one beat writer predicts. Although Patterson is still on the roster, Ray Fittipaldo doesn’t see him earning this role back. He didn’t predict at this time that Patterson won’t make the team, but whether he does or does not, he won’t be back in his old job.
“No doubt they’ve got to do a better job with their kick returns”, Fittipaldo said on the North Shore Drive podcast. “We’ve probably seen the last of Cordarrelle Patterson back there. I can’t imagine after last season the Steelers would want to have him back there again. But they do have some options. They’ve got a lot of different guys who can return those kicks”.
With the NFL changing the kick-return format in a radical way last offseason, the Steelers looked for an edge. They thought that by signing Cordarrelle Patterson, arguably the greatest kick returner in NFL history, they would have a clear advantage. What they saw in return, unfortunately, was a 33-year-old struggling to adapt.
In fact, Patterson made his opinion of the new kickoff clear after the season. Unless you can find another interpretation for this, I don’t think he liked it. And why put an old, losing-steps kick returner back on kick returns in a format he doesn’t like?
Of course, this all begs the question of why Cordarrelle Patterson is on the Steelers’ roster at this point. The team said it signed Patterson as a response to the kick-return rule, and he and they failed there. So why would he still make the team if that job is no longer his?
Patterson is nominally a running back, and he did have a small handful of carries in which he looked like his old self. But the Steelers have Jaylen Warren, rookie Kaleb Johnson, and Kenneth Gainwell at running back. Retaining Patterson, he would be the fourth back, and if he has no special teams role, what does he have?
Well, he has the respect of OC Arthur Smith, under whom he fully made the transition to running back. But Patterson is 34 years old now and doesn’t have the speed and endurance he once had. According to Mark Kaboly, while he attended minicamp, he did not see him participating. He only saw him in the locker room.
Regardless of who is returning kicks, even if it’s Cordarrelle Patterson, the Steelers absolutely must improve. They ranked last in yards per return last season by a comfortable margin, with a long of just 35 yards. With the kick now more like a punt return, perhaps Calvin Austin III could handle the role.
But the Steelers also drafted Donte Kent in part due to his return abilities, and he volunteered for that. They have other options they can try out, and surely they intend to. At the very least, they can’t go into the season with Cordarrelle Patterson as their only option.
“If I’m playing against the Steelers this year, there is no way I’m kicking that ball into the end zone, Fittipaldo said. “I’m kicking it in the kicking zone and I’m making the Steelers prove [to] me that they can actually do a better job this year”.
