Week 9 Player Spotlight
WR Cordarrelle Patterson– Minnesota Vikings
By the numbers
Age: 24
Height: 6’2″
Weight: 216lbs
4th Season out of University of Tennessee
4.42 second 40 meter
37” vertical jump
128” broad jump
Combine Score: 90.6 (comparable to Demaryius Thomas)
If you’re not an avid football fan then Cordarrelle Patterson may be a bit of an unknown player to you. He spent the 2014 and 2015 seasons buried on the Vikings depth chart and has been relegated to kick return duties. But as a rookie, Patterson was an electric part of Minnesota’s offense. The Vikings lined him up all over the field and he was very productive, posting 10 total touchdowns and over 2000 all-purpose yards in 2013:
45 Receptions / 469 Yards / 4 TDs
12 Rush Attempts / 158 Yards / 3 TDs
43 Kick Returns / 1393 Yards / 3 TDs
What went wrong?
Norv Turner became the Vikings offensive coordinator in 2014 and his system stifled Cordarrelle Patterson’s promising career. Turner’s knock on Patterson was that Patterson did not have a good enough grasp of his route tree and Turner’s system requires receivers to master all the routes so they can adapt to audibles at the line. Turner didn’t like what he saw in Patterson and basically benched the talented receiver.
A new opportunity
This season has been brutal for the Vikings in terms of Injuries. Not only have they lost their starting quarterback but they’ve also lost the center piece of their offense in Adrian Peterson. The run game is bad and the offensive line play has not been playing well. In an effort to get something going on offense, the Vikings have started giving the ball to Patterson. And it’s working.
Patterson’s production since week 4:
Week 4: 48.6% offensive snaps played
6 targets for 5 rec / 38 yds
Week 5: 60.8% offensive snaps played
6 targets for 4 rec / 39 yds / 1 TD
Week 6: bye
Week 7: 67.1% offensive snaps played
7 targets for 7 rec / 67 yds / 1 TD
Week 8: 67.2% offensive snaps played
3 targets for 3 rec / 36 yds
It needs to be noted that Patterson did not practice in week 8 due to a concussion, but still managed to play 67.2% of the snaps Monday night against Chicago. His production wasn’t great, but his usage indicates that even without practicing he was still an important part of the game plan
Moving forward
Earlier this week Norv Turner resigned as offensive coordinator of the Vikings leaving Pat Shurmur (offensive coordinator of the Eagles in 2015) to take over the play calling duties. Now that Patterson is being recognized as one of the best playmakers on the team, his usage should continue to rise. Shurmur is a little bit of an unknown so it remains to be seen what his tendencies will be but it makes sense that the new offensive game plan will involve getting the ball out of Sam Bradford’s hands quickly with screen passes and short slants as an extension of the running game. This would help take pressure off Bradford and an offensive line that isn’t playing well. Shurmur’s system could result in a lot more targets for Patterson. Patterson is an excellent talent that won’t be under the radar for much longer so you may want to consider him as a cheap addition to your lineup.
Patterson is only $3,300 (6% of your budget) on DraftKings and $5,400 (9% of your budget) on FanDuel. He is a great value play with realistic upside.
Christopher Tyler Baker
DKL Staff Writer
Jared Warner
DKL Contributing Writer
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