dead_poet wrote:
I can see both sides of this. No question he can be electric with the ball in his hands but he has also shown (consistently) that he is not in the spot he's supposed to be or running a route as sharply/precisely as needed by a starting NFL wide receiver, especially one that can be trusted in a precise/timing offense like Turner's. It's the Patterson Conundrum.
I think at the end of the day our disagreement comes down to whether Patterson, at his current skill level, should be on the field before Wallace, Johnson or Wright when the Vikings are running some part of their base offense. My position is that he shouldn't be. I only see him on the field if they are running a "wrinkle" play designed for Patterson (or designed to take advantage of him as a decoy). Jim's position, if I understand it, (forgive me if I am wrong) is that
sometimes he should replace one of the aforementioned WRs in the base offense. I'm just speculating here that the reasons for that are a) Patterson has upside as a "big play" waiting to happen and b) Patterson can't develop as quickly from the sideline. Both true.
Nonetheless, to me his "big play" capability doesn't trump the importance of a consistent rhythm within a timing offense. In addition, his "big play" ability cuts both ways, as we witnessed in the last preseason game on two occasions, where he ran the wrong route and couldn't line up correctly (potentially "big plays"). How many more occasions are more subtle is really unknowable but again, I point to the fact that the coaches felt the need to replace him as evidence that he too frequently is screwing up on plays where the casual fan doesn't ever see the screw up. These could be "big plays" in the form of not completing a pass, not converting a 3rd down, forcing a QB to hold the ball, to take a sack, forcing an Olineman to block for an extra second, to hold a DE, etc. We just say, "put Patterson out there, he might score a touchdown" but how many points might he be taking off the board by his goof ups or lack of skill? There's no precise way to calculate that (someone in another thread put forward an erroneous idea that if Patterson scores 9 touchdowns thats +9 touchdowns for the team on the year, clearly not true. It could in fact be plus more than 9 or minus more than 9, but its never that simplistic.) Obviously that is a calculation coaches would need to consider before pulling a dynamic player off the field. And yet they pulled him off the field. I find that telling, and I trust this coaching staff (Norv Turner is one of the best ever) to make the correct decision there both for the overall offense and the development of a young QB.