Chicago Bears excited about ways to use Cordarrelle Patterson

The Chicago Bears signing Cordarrelle Patterson may be an underrated move this offseason. The team is excited at the many ways he could help the team score a lot of points.

The Chicago Bears have made moves to strengthen an already strong roster. The front office made tough decisions on letting key players go but did a good job at replacing them. They also made a controversial move, parting ways with a popular player.

One of the moves that didn’t get much fanfare, however, was the signing of all-purpose player Cordarrelle Patterson. Patterson helped the New England Patriots win last year’s Super Bowl and now hopes to do the same with the Bears.

Over his career, Patterson has been a jack of all trades. He’s played wide receiver, running back, and kickoff returner. Kickoff return is where he’s been excellent. He averages 30 yards per return and has six touchdowns in 176 returns. He’s contributed as a receiver (1,872 yards, 10 touchdowns, 10.2 yards per reception) and a rusher (682 yards, seven touchdowns, 7.9 yards per rush), but not as he has as a kickoff returner.

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With the Bears, however, Patterson could thrive in all three phases. He’ll continue to do well returning, but Chicago Bears head coach Matt Nagy is salivating thinking about what he could do with his new Swiss Army knife.

Last season was magical for the Bears. The offense was much better than it had been for years, ranking ninth in points with 421. Despite those nice numbers, they still left points on the table and have more to improve. The passing game, while better than the pedestrian play of former head coach John Fox, ranked just 24th in attempts and 21st in yards.

There was just something missing in the offense. There were times the passes were flying and everyone was catching the ball and the points were rolling. Other times, though, it seemed like a grind just to get a couple of yards.

Part of the reason was that, late in the season, Nagy decided to force feed running back Jordan Howard. Giving him the ball helped him get a big chunk of yards in his last five games (399 of his 935 yards and four of his nine touchdowns), but the offense was out of sync because of it. When he was on the field, defenses knew he was there just to run.

Now Howard is out and the possibilities of plays are endless. Patterson is a big reason for that. Patterson will definitely improve the kickoff return. The Bears ranked last in kickoff returns last season. That changes with Patterson. However, he’ll help the offense as well.

Nagy spoke about Patterson at the NFL Annual Meeting last week, per NBC Sports:

"If we were bringing him here just to return kicks … I mean, I’d be lying to you. He’s going to play with the offense and he’s going to have a role. From now until Week 1 we’ve got to figure out, how do we maximize what he does best? I don’t know that yet but when I see him get in here and we talk to him and see what he can do, then we as an offensive staff are going to find some good stuff for him."

Patterson won’t be the main guy in the offense. They already have their top players. What he’ll do is provide the big play the offense needs. He can run out of the backfield and take the ball on the outside and use his speed to elude defenders. He can also run routes from either the backfield or from either the slot or outside.

With Allen Robinson, Anthony Miller, Taylor Gabriel, Tarik Cohen and Trey Burton (hopefully Adam Shaheen as well), the Bears are stacked with receivers. Patterson could be the icing on the cake.

He can go out deep or take it short and make it a deep play. Having him on the field makes it easier for everyone else. Add him and free agent pickup Mike Davis and whoever they get in the draft and Nagy and quarterback Mitch Trubisky have a plethora of options. They should score even more points than they did last season.

I understand how Nagy would be giddy at adding Patterson to this group. This will be a fun offense to watch. Hopefully, this is an offense that complements well with the dominating defense the team already has.