It’s no secret that Vikings wide receiver Cordarrelle Patterson has not lived up to his first round hype during his first two seasons in the NFL.
Sure, Patterson’s had moments where he looked like the receiver that electrified Neyland Stadium and the rest of the SEC in 2012, but he’s also had stretches where he’s completely disappeared.
Patterson is one of the most talented players in the NFL when he gets the ball in the open field.
Unfortunately for the Vikings, he struggles to get the ball in his hands.
But perhaps that will change in 2015 (especially with the return of future hall of fame running back Adrian Peterson).
Vikings head coach Mike Zimmer thinks the former Vol is on the right track, though he admits that Patterson still needs to find consistency to make his mark in the NFL.
From USA Today
"Zimmer: “Cordarrelle is on a good track right now, OK? Now, can he sustain? Can he continue to sustain what he’s doing? Because like today, I thought he had a good day. In OTAs, I thought he improved. He’ll have really good days, and then he’ll have some not-so-good days. Really, I think what he needs to do is just the consistency every single day and the consistency in studying, the consistency in getting extra help that he needs if he needs it, running the routes the same all the time and understanding that there’s a lot of great athletes that play professional sports, and there’s a lot of great athletes that don’t make it in professional sports because they don’t have the other intangibles. To me, the biggest thing with him is that: Does he want to be ‘Flash’ or does he want to be a great receiver? I’m not trying to dog him or anything, but that’s really what it is.”"
It sounds like Zimmer thinks Patterson needs to worry more about his on-the-field performance rather than his “persona”.
Patterson has the talent to one of the top wide receivers in the game. If he can figure out how to run consistent routes and get the ball in his hands then he’ll be a weekly fixture on Sportscenter.
Let’s hope he gets it together, because there’s just too much talent flowing through the former Tennessee standout to be wasted.