Cordarrelle Patterson

[Boon]

who in their right mind would trade 3 picks for a glorified kick returner? no one. if he cannot get on the field as a receiver just cut him loose and get it over with already. why wasn't he on the field on offense this entire year? there has to be a reason. from a fan's perspective i would venture to say its his childish attitude. dancing like a moron when were down 30 against seattle. that tells a lot about a person's lack of character when they behave like a clown. and he's done it before how many personal foul penalties has he gotten? a ton.

Umm, he has 1 personal foul penalty in 3 seasons

[HardcoreVikesFan]

Umm, he has 1 personal foul penalty in 3 seasons

There he goes again. Spewing off about a player he is biased about - even when he doesn't have the facts correct.

[saint33]

who in their right mind would trade 3 picks for a glorified kick returner? no one. if he cannot get on the field as a receiver just cut him loose and get it over with already. why wasn't he on the field on offense this entire year? there has to be a reason. from a fan's perspective i would venture to say its his childish attitude. dancing like a moron when were down 30 against seattle. that tells a lot about a person's lack of character when they behave like a clown. and he's done it before how many personal foul penalties has he gotten? a ton.

Why would we cut a player who is currently on pace to be tied for 3rd all time for kick off return TDs before his rookie contract expires. And as I said before, he's doing it in an era where kick off returns have been significantly neutered. Since Patterson was drafted, he is the only player to return two kick offs for TDs in the same season... And he's done it twice. Marcus Sherels rarely sees the field on defense and yet everyone seems perfectly fine keeping him on the roster as our punt returner, and he's not even close to as good as Patterson has been in the return game.


The draft is in the past, if he never makes an impact on offense, then yes we will have spent far too much in order to draft him where we did. But that doesn't mean we should just cut the best kick off returner in the league, who could quite possibly be the best of all time.

[fiestavike]

Wouldn't it just be awesome if Patterson put in some serious work this offseason and came in ready to contribute as a WR next year? A guy can dream! That would be so thrilling if Diggs and Patterson developed to their fullest potential.

[IrishViking]

Wouldn't it just be awesome if Patterson put in some serious work this offseason and came in ready to contribute as a WR next year? A guy can dream! That would be so thrilling if Diggs and Patterson developed to their fullest potential.

If Patterson developed some precision route running a penance for battling for the ball he would be a great person to have on the field.

[Mothman]

If Patterson developed some precision route running a penance for battling for the ball he would be a great person to have on the field.

I agree so why isn't that happening? He can get open. He can catch. He can run at least some routes well so is the problem personal, as in...

Lack of motivation
Poor work habits
Learning disability
Immaturity
Poor attitude

... or does it lie elsewhere, as in:

Insufficient practice reps as a WR since he plays special teams and has fallen to the bottom of the depth chart
Inadequate coaching
Is he being asked to do more than he can handle
Is he improving but not meeting whatever standard the coaches have set? Is that standard the same for every receiver on the team or once in the doghouse, is it harder to get out?

Are stubborn attitudes prevailing on both sides?

It could be any or all of the above, in any combination. It could be something else. Whatever the reasons, it's a waste of playmaking ability and there has to be a way to improve the situation. It's extremely disappointing that it hasn't happened.

[fiestavike]

I agree so why isn't that happening? He can get open. He can catch. He can run at least some routes well so is the problem personal, as in...

Lack of motivation
Poor work habits
Learning disability
Immaturity
Poor attitude

... or does it lie elsewhere, as in:

Insufficient practice reps as a WR since he plays special teams and has fallen to the bottom of the depth chart
Inadequate coaching
Is he being asked to do more than he can handle
Is he improving but not meeting whatever standard the coaches have set? Is that standard the same for every receiver on the team or once in the doghouse, is it harder to get out?

Are stubborn attitudes prevailing on both sides?

It could be any or all of the above, in any combination. It could be something else. Whatever the reasons, it's a waste of playmaking ability and there has to be a way to improve the situation. It's extremely disappointing that it hasn't happened.

It seems pretty clear cut.

[IrishViking]

I agree so why isn't that happening? He can get open. He can catch. He can run at least some routes well so is the problem personal, as in...

Lack of motivation
Poor work habits
Learning disability
Immaturity
Poor attitude

... or does it lie elsewhere, as in:

Insufficient practice reps as a WR since he plays special teams and has fallen to the bottom of the depth chart
Inadequate coaching
Is he being asked to do more than he can handle
Is he improving but not meeting whatever standard the coaches have set? Is that standard the same for every receiver on the team or once in the doghouse, is it harder to get out?

Are stubborn attitudes prevailing on both sides?

It could be any or all of the above, in any combination. It could be something else. Whatever the reasons, it's a waste of playmaking ability and there has to be a way to improve the situation. It's extremely disappointing that it hasn't happened.

I doubt that even if Zimmer or Norv have a problem with Patterson they would be asking him to do more than what is regularly expected of Any wide receiver (see learning disability above ) Also, Why does there have to be improvement, Ideally there would be but impasses happen? If one party says; I need X and the other party say emphatically "No", then that's it. There is no improvement in the situation.

My best guess without throwing anyone under the bus is that there isn't the same sense of urgency from the Coaches and Patterson as we have here. Patterson seems content to be the return specialist and pop in on the occasional gadget play or 4 wide set. The Coaches seem happy with the depth chart they have (while admittedly wanting and expecting more out of certain pieces) and are equally content to let Patterson develop on a slow burn. My guess is that best case in 2 years or so Patterson will start appear in many more receiver sets doing well and everyone will be up in arms because they wanted to know he wasn't played sooner.

[Mothman]

It seems pretty clear cut.

If you consider a paucity of good information on the subject "clear cut" then, yes, it's very clear cut.

[fiestavike]

If you consider a paucity of good information on the subject "clear cut" then, yes, it's very clear cut.

It seems clear to the degree that the Head Coach directly, repeatedly, and publicly called him out for not doing what he needs to do in back to back offseasons.

If you are interested in assigning blame 5% here and 25% there, etc, then I guess there is a paucity of information. If you are interested in Patterson developing, he needs to live up to his coaches standards. so thats 100 percent on him. So far, he evidently hasn't done it, and I don't hear him or anybody else on the team complaining. I think they have a pretty clear idea what is expected of them.

[Mothman]

It seems clear to the degree that the Head Coach directly, repeatedly, and publicly called him out for not doing what he needs to do in back to back offseasons.

Yes, that much is clear, even if we don't have a clear idea of exactly "what he needs to do"...

If you are interested in assigning blame 5% here and 25% there, etc, then I guess there is a paucity of information.

I'm not particularly interested in assigning blame.

If you are interested in Patterson developing, he needs to live up to his coaches standards. so thats 100 percent on him.

So far, he evidently hasn't done it, and I don't hear him or anybody else on the team complaining. I think they have a pretty clear idea what is expected of them.

It's impossible to have a discussion about this subject with any nuance at all.

[fiestavike]

It's impossible to have a discussion about this subject with any nuance at all.

Sorry Jim, we certainly don't have enough information to have a nuanced discussion about it. I do think I was a bit hasty and overlooked where you were trying to go with your previous comment, but as you said, one can't have a nuanced conversation about something which there is no information to provide the contours. We just have the broad strokes and they indicate decisively that in terms of motivation and the mental side of things Patterson isn't doing well enough to satisfy the coaches. That's basically what we know and what I think we can agree on. I don't really see what the point is in speculating about whether the coaches aren't giving him enough reps or he's not being allowed out of the doghouse, etc. I grant you, it would be interesting to know more. Like you said, is he improving? I'd love to know, but we can only speculate. That pretty well limits the conversation. I just hope Patterson shows up at Larry Fitzgeralds camp this offseason, and spend a lot of time working out with Teddy in Florida. I'd love to see the indications that he's going all out and committing to honing his craft.

[Mothman]

Sorry Jim, we certainly don't have enough information to have a nuanced discussion about it. I do think I was a bit hasty and overlooked where you were trying to go with your previous comment, but as you said, one can't have a nuanced conversation about something which there is no information to provide the contours. We just have the broad strokes and they indicate decisively that in terms of motivation and the mental side of things Patterson isn't doing well enough to satisfy the coaches. That's basically what we know and what I think we can agree on.

Unfortunately, I can't quite agree with that, as stated. Patterson seems motivated so to me, that leaves the mental side of things, or at least the execution side of things.

We have enough info to know Patterson was struggling to run routes to the coaching staff's satisfaction in 2014. Presumably, that's still an issue.

Zimmer spoke in the spring about being impressed with Patterson in early workouts for 2015:

He’s really done well,” Zimmer said Wednesday. “He’s running routes good; he’s working hard. So we just need him to continue to do those things and continue to keep getting consistent and keep improving. I’ve been impressed with the things that he’s done.”

We know Patterson spent 4 weeks in the offseason working with trainer Frank Matrisciano, taking a break during those workouts to workout with Teddy Bridgewater and other Vikings teammates in L.A.. If I'm not mistaken, he went back and did additional training with Matrisciano after mini-camp.

During training camp, Zimmer said about Patterson:

“He’s been impressive,” Zimmer said. “So, you know, today’s a new day. We’ll see how he does today. I don’t know that he’s turned the corner yet. But he’s definitely kind of rounding it.”

That same article (by Mark Craig of the Star Tribune) featured one of the most definitive statements I've seen about all of this:

Bridgewater was asked Wednesday how the two can develop timing together with little to no reps in practice. He started off by saying the usual stuff about how Patterson needs to take advantage of any first-team reps he gets. But then Bridgewater hit on what was the primary reason for Patterson’s fall: Not understanding the offense well enough to be where he’s supposed to be and/or when he’s supposed to be there.

“Everything isn’t always timing [with the quarterback],” Bridgewater said. “Sometimes, we throw to areas and he just needs to be in the right place. As long as he’s executing what’s asked of him when he’s in there, we shouldn’t have an issue when he’s in there, whether it’s me or Shaun [Hill] or Mike[Kafka] or Taylor [Heinicke].”

None of the above suggests a lack of effort or motivation to me.

At the end of August, after Zimmer had returned a preseason kickoff for a TD, Zimmer said:

"The good thing about Cordarrelle is he continues to work each and every week and, when he has the ball in his hands, he can do a lot of things,'' said Vikings coach Mike Zimmer. "He's a good weapon for us.''

What seems clear to me is Patterson worked hard in the offseason (even if he didn't meet with Michael Irvin), impressed his coach in mini-camp, impressed him again in training camp and Zimmer was viewing him as a "good weapon" in the summer. Since then, we've seen almost nothing from him but kickoff returns. That brings us Zimmer's recent comments during his final press conference of the season:

"I don't know that for sure. This is going to sound like a broken record, but I have hope for him. There's times when the proof's got to be in the pudding. He's got to do this, and if he doesn't, then that's what he's going to be -- a returner. At the end of the day, it's really up to him."

What's the "this" in "got to do this"? Presumably, it's what Bridgewater referred to above: grasping the offense and being where he's supposed to be. Consequently, the point in wanting information about practice reps, what standard he's supposed to meet, why he's been unable to meet it, etc. is that I'd like a better understanding of just what Patterson's shortcomings are and why he can't get more involved with the offense. He doesn't seem to lack motivation so is he just failing to grasp something (because that's different than refusing to try hard enough to grasp something)? Is he getting enough reps to really make the strides he needs to make? Is it possible he'd benefit from learning and mastering a package of plays that could get him more involved? Then perhaps he could build on that until he had a better understanding of the whole offense. I want to know what the Vikes are doing to make the most of this potentially valuable player and I also think getting a better idea of the exact nature of the problem and how it's being handled would provide some valuable insight into how the team is being coached. They kept a player with serious playmaking ability on the bench most of the season while their offense struggled. Many would say that speaks volumes about Patterson and perhaps it does but it may also speak volumes about the coaching staff and their approach to player development and problem-solving. It all seems rather relevant to me.

Nobody needs to feel obliged to respond to this lengthy post but hopefully it helps explain my interest and why I think a more nuanced view of the situation is both necessary and worthwhile.

[IrishViking]

I get the interest Jim, But that is why we have coaches. Because we cant have 3 million jim's coaching from the sidelines. For me its as Simple as; I trust Zimmer and Patterson isn't on the field, therefore, he shouldn't be on the field.

There is some stuff you will never be privy to unless you come up with 300 million to invest in the Vikings.

[fiestavike]

Thanks, I appreciate the clarification.

I enjoyed your summation. I'm not personally interested in delving too far into the unknown aspects. I'm more of less content to agree with Zimmer that "At the end of the day, it's really up to him" whether thats mental and/or physical. It indicates motivation as the underlying problem in my view. As far as what it indicates that a talented player is kept off the field, I view it as a huge positive about the standards of the coaching staff and the respect they have for their players and their team who are there grinding away in the classroom AND on the practice field. To me trying to milk Patterson's athleticism for a big play here or there without holding him to the same standards is taking the quick buck at the expense of the culture required to build a championship team.