The Atlanta Falcons have signed a one-year deal with running back/wide receiver/kick returner Cordarrelle Patterson on Thursday.
Patterson, a four-time Pro Bowler, is viewed one of the most dynamic kick returners in the game, driving the NFL in kick return yardage the previous two seasons. He has scored on kick returns in every one of the previous three seasons and has eight in his career.
He has averaged 29.8 yards per kick return in his career, second-most all time behind Hall of Famer Gale Sayers, who found the middle value of 30.6 yards from 1965 to ’71. He’s one of three qualifying players in NFL history – and the one in particular who has played over the most recent forty years, to average in excess of 29 yards for each kick return in his vocation.
A first-balance pick of Tennessee in the 2013 draft by Minnesota, Patterson was at first a wide receiver but in recent years has transitioned into a player who can play receiver or running back alongside his kick bring obligations back.
Between Minnesota, Chicago, New England and Oakland, he has played in 127 games, catching 216 passes for 2,087 yards and 10 touchdowns while rushing 167 times for 1,017 yards and eight touchdowns.
Patterson will be familiar to new Falcons special teams coordinator Marquice Williams, who faced Patterson the past two seasons when Williams was a right hand in Detroit and Patterson was the returner in Chicago. In Williams’ time in Detroit, he likewise worked with another high-level returner, Jamal Agnew, and now he will have truly outstanding allied history in Patterson.
The Falcons have likewise signed wellbeing Duron Harmon.
Harmon was with the Lions last season, where he began every one of the 16 games for the first time in his career and had 73 tackles with five passes defended and two interceptions. Harmon spent the earlier seven seasons in New England, where the 30-year-old began 29 games and had 17 interceptions.
Atlanta likewise released running back Ito Smith, who had 689 rushing yards and 314 receiving yards in his three seasons with the Falcons. He was a fourth-round pick of Southern Mississippi in 2018. By releasing him, the Falcons save $920,000 in cap space and have a dead money hit of $155,218.