The Pittsburgh Steelers are entering a new era. The kickoff game has completely changed, so to help adapt to it, the team went out and signed the best kick returner of his generation, Cordarrelle Patterson. With the idea that there will be a lot of extra space due to the new rule, the Steelers hope that they can unlock the version of Patterson that dominated with the Minnesota Vikings. However, the Steelers are not making everything easy on him just because the rules now suddenly benefit players like him.
On an episode of The North Shore Drive podcast, Brian Batko talked about what has most likely been happening during camp for Patterson and the Steelers to help prepare for the new age of kickoff returns.
"[Cordarrelle Patterson] has a love-hate relationship with [the new rules]. One day, he enjoys it. The next day, he hates it, probably because Danny Smith and co. are making it tough on him in practice, busting out all sorts of different kicks: sharp line drives, squibbers, and Patterson maybe he's the Danny Glover: 'I'm getting to old for this.'"
Earlier in the podcast, Christopher Carter called out Danny Smith, the Steelers' special teams coordinator, for being crazy. With how long he has been in the league as a special teams coach, he could easily retire with the new ruleset. Instead, Smith is taking this new challenge head-on, and Patterson has to deal with any kind of challenge or drill that gets thrown his way.
Steelers Are Challenging Patterson In Case Of Trickery By Kickoff Team
With this new kickoff format, the return game is not the only one coming up with new ideas and strategies on exploiting it. The kickoff team also has its own challenge to go through, and they have to find ways to prevent the returners from getting too much space and getting an easy touchdown. Patterson has to be ready for any and every piece of trickery that gets thrown his way.
Smith knows about these new strategies and formations obviously, since he's helping to make some of these adjustments for the kickoff team as well. He is most likely preparing Patterson for every kind of kickoff situation that he would draw up for the Steelers. If there's a will, there's a way, and Smith is probably coming up with many ways to make kickoffs as hard as humanly possible on opposing returners.
With every new way to play the game, a new opportunity arises to exploit it. The Steelers signed Patterson as a way to exploit it, but they have to prepare for any way that they could be exploited. Line drive kicks that are placed correctly could lead to Patterson having to scramble to field the ball and not gain momentum. Sky kicks that are placed correctly could also pull Patterson near the top of the landing zone, making it harder for him to gain enough speed before the opponents close in on him.
No matter what happens, as long as Smith can make Patterson ready to take on this new rule, anything he throws at him in practice will be a success. Patterson still has plenty of explosiveness and speed, so if he can get past that initial wave of defenders, he could score. There's only one way to find out how successful Smith and Patterson will be in this new endeavor: watch the games and watch Patterson leave all 11 tacklers in the dust.
