The months leading up to the start of the 2014 season featured plenty of rosy predictions about the impact that wide receiver Cordarrelle Patterson would have on the Vikings offense.
The 2014 season has come to an end for Minnesota and those predictions fell well short of coming true. Patterson ended the year with 33 catches for 384 yards, 10 carries for 117 yards and two touchdowns while losing a starting job to Charles Johnson after Johnson joined the team from the Browns practice squad. Over the course of the year, Vikings coaches gave various explanations for Patterson’s struggles, with many of them falling on Patterson’s need to clean up fundamentals like route running.
On Monday, Patterson expressed a willingness to work on anything the Vikings want him to improve this offseason and said that “I blame myself for everything” that went wrong this season. Patterson said he talked to coach Mike Zimmer about working with others in order to be better prepared for the 2015 season.
“Just like a Teddy or somebody who knows the full offense,” Patterson said, via ESPN.com. "[Quarterbacks coach] Scott [Turner]. Whoever. Just work with them, whoever it be. If it have to be in Minnesota or back in South Carolina, somewhere. Just to work with them, make sure that I get everything done, how Coach [Norv] Turner wants to run his offense.”
Finding a way to put Patterson’s considerable athletic abilities to better use in the offense would be of great value to the Vikings. If it doesn’t happen in his second year in the current offensive system, however, it will be a long shot to ever happen for him in Minnesota.
