Wide receiver Cordarrelle Patterson has helped the Vikings offense in his rookie season both on offense and special teams. The Vikings gave a steep bounty to New England in exchange for the 29th overall selection in the 2013 Draft, but the trade got done and they were able to make Patterson their third first round selection of the day, and he immediately injected excitement into the offensive and special teams playbooks.
Thus far, Patterson has paid dividends to the Vikings in the form of 40 catches, 430 receiving yards, and three receiving touchdowns in addition to 50 yards and a touchdown on seven rushing attempts. His addition, combined with the signing of Greg Jennings, created more legitimacy to the Vikings group of receivers which created a no-excuses scenario for the Vikings to finalize their evaluation of Christian Ponder.
In addition to his work on offense, Patterson has pretty easily been this season’s best kick returner, and the results are really showing. Patterson has returned 36 kicks for 1,199 yards (a Vikings rookie record) with two more touchdowns. As of late, opponents have sacrificed field position by kicking away from Patterson all together, which has set the offense up with huge advantages throughout the games.
Much of the pre-Draft debate surrounding the Vikings included names like Keenan Allen, DeAndre Hopkins, Tavon Austin, and Patterson. Allen has arguably been the best wide out, and possibly offensive player, this class had to offer and some of his recent quotes have raised eyebrows within the Minnesota fanbase.
Allen said his agent told him he had a “guarantee” the Vikings would select him in the first round, despite rumors that his poorly timed knee injury had doomed his draft stock. The injury caused him to push back workout dates and eventually produced an underwhelming 40-yard dash time. Allen indeed tumbled on Draft weekend and he ended up going to San Diego in the third round. He was drafted 76th overall and was the eighth wide receiver taken in the class.
This season Allen has done wonders for the Chargers who clearly suffered in the absence of Vincent Jackson and needed a big, athletic wide out that could out-run and out-jump opposing defenders on a regular basis. Allen has 63 catches for 931 yards and seven touchdowns. He has done alright on special teams, as well, with 10 punt returns for a 8.4 yard average.
“It hurt me. Now it’s hurting them,” Allen said of the teams that passed on him. “It is what it is. I don’t dwell on it.”
The Vikings surely aren’t disappointed with the return they are getting on their Patterson investment, or any of their first round selections for that matter. Still, Allen has been an all-out stud as a rookie, and one has to wonder how this all will look with a few more seasons in the past. One thing that is for sure, the Chargers got a better value snagging Allen that late in the Draft, and they didn’t have to trade away additional picks to move up and get him.
How about you? With hindsight being what it is, would you have done anything different if you were Rick Spielman and had a time machine programed for April of 2013? Let me know in the comments section.
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Hindsight absolutley I would do a lot different. But I also believe at the time Speilman made the right calls.
Sorry I'd like to clarify I'd still take Patterson but obviously try to trade up for Allen in the third and maybe Lotulelei from Carolina and others(Kiko Alonso! Whom I wanted in my mock)
Thrilled to death with the trade and results. If Patterson had Rivers as QB.....he might be a #1 receiver by now. The dude has a much, much higher ceiling than any rookie receiver, and I'm glad he's a Viking.
Has Allen said when exactly his agent told him he was absolutely going to be selected by the Vikings? For all we know he was telling his agent he wanted to make a change when he realized his draft stock was dropping so badly, and that's when this guarantee surfaced. I would say things have worked out okay. I would like to see the team stop trading away draft picks in order to move up. It has worked out okay for them so far, but eventually they are going to miss on one of those trade ups and it compounds the miss when you trade away picks to move up. It's better to trade down or stay put and see what falls into your lap like the Chargers did with Allen. One thing I will say is that Spielman has moved up for the right type of players the last couple years. Securing Hunter Smith was a must and Patterson is the type of play-maker that is worth trading up for. I also like that he hasn't traded away picks from future classes to move up.
Harrison Smith, not Hunter...that's what I get for posting after mid-night.
of course i'd make changes, i'd somehow take allen, too, and figure out why my motorcycle won't start
Is there gas in it, Cal?
for reference, coach, did you read the twitter feed on here? funny
Oh, OK. Yeah, got it, Cal. That IS funny. Except what's not funny is mine won't start either, and I can't figure out why.
i KNOW you checked that there's gas in it, but did you tell your wife?
Yeah, she's not sure why either.
wow, she knows bikes. no wonder you married her, a real keeper
Confucius say "man with good hindsight has $h!tty history"
Keenan Allen doesn't have Greg Jenning taking some of his production away. It also doesn't hurt to have Philip River as a QB and Ken Whisenhunt as an Offensive Coordinator.
With that said, Allen was the most NFL ready WR in the draft (outside of his knee question mark), and probably the steel of the draft as a 3rd rounder.
Would I change things? No way! The Jenning and C Patterson combo looks pretty special when we have good QB play.
Wr can be hit or miss. I love the last couple drafts. Wright looks like he'll work out good, too. I love Patterson. The fact that we didn't resign Rice and we traded Percy, great moves. As long as they release Ponder or trade him, never EVER say they'll play him again, and I'll be thrilled. I really want to know who was the one sticking with Ponder? Was it Frazier or Speilman? That's my main question with this team moving forward. Who was the one stupid enough to believe that little paperboy could do it. Everybody's all "Protect Ponders blind side for the next decade.", god, that sucked. No wonder Percy went off on that sleepwalking idiot Frazier. I hope this Ponder nightmare is over.
I am not so sure it was all Frazier that was pushing the Ponder thing? After all, Frazier was the guy that really wanted Donovan McNabb. And, Frazier was quick to bench Ponder early in his career. So, I think Spielman probably laid-the-law pretty firmly with Frazier after the first Ponder benching.
In my opinion, Frazier was probably just making darn sure to let Spielman pull the plug on Ponder.
When Frazier would say, "Ponder gives us the best chance to win", that sound more like Spielman telling him what to say.
After every game, Frazier would couldn't answer the QB questions on his own. He would always revert to that "we need to watch the tape and talk things over", mumbo jumbo.
I think Frazier was most certainly moving in the direction Spielman wanted to go.
nailed it CK
and how did that McNabb decision work out?