It’s that time of year once again! Football Absurdity will bring you a breakdown of every notable fantasy football-relevant player throughout June, July, and August. We continue with the running backs. Today, we take a look at a career special teamer who had himself quite the 2021 but faded down the stretch. What should we be doing with Cordarrelle Patterson in our 2022 fantasy football drafts?
Cordarrelle Patterson ADP and AAV:
Average Draft Position: RB32, 91 overall
Average Auction Value: $2.8
Cordarrelle Patterson Statistics:
| Year | G | GS | Rush | Ru Yds | Ru TD | Tgt | Rec | Yards | TD | Touches | Opp | Total Yards |
| 2021 | 16 | 13 | 153 | 618 | 6 | 69 | 52 | 548 | 5 | 205 | 222 | 1166 |
| 2020 | 16 | 3 | 64 | 232 | 1 | 25 | 21 | 132 | 0 | 85 | 89 | 364 |
| 2019 | 16 | 4 | 17 | 103 | 0 | 17 | 11 | 83 | 0 | 28 | 34 | 186 |
| Year | YPC | Rush/G | Ru Yd/G | Tgt/G | Rec/G | Catch% | Yds/Tgt | Yds/Rec | Touches/G | Opp/G | Yds/G |
| 2021 | 4.04 | 9.6 | 38.6 | 4.31 | 3.25 | 75.4% | 7.94 | 10.54 | 12.81 | 13.88 | 72.9 |
| 2020 | 3.60 | 4.0 | 14.5 | 1.56 | 1.31 | 84.0% | 5.28 | 6.29 | 5.31 | 5.56 | 22.75 |
| 2019 | 6.10 | 1.1 | 6.4 | 1.06 | 0.69 | 64.7% | 4.88 | 7.55 | 1.75 | 2.13 | 11.63 |
| Year | Std Pts | HPPR Pts | PPR Pts | Pts/G | HPPR Pts/G | PPR Pts/G | Pts/Tch | HPPR Pts/Tch | PPR Pts/Tch |
| 2021 | 182.6 | 208.6 | 234.6 | 11.41 | 13.04 | 14.7 | 0.89 | 1.02 | 1.14 |
| 2020 | 48.4 | 58.9 | 69.4 | 3.03 | 3.68 | 4.3 | 0.57 | 0.69 | 0.82 |
| 2019 | 24.6 | 30.1 | 35.6 | 1.54 | 1.88 | 2.225 | 0.88 | 1.08 | 1.27 |
2022 Cordarrelle Patterson Fantasy Football Overview:
Cordarrelle Patterson set the fantasy football season on fire in the first half, as the career special teamer averaged four receptions and 10 carries per game for the first eleven games of the season, which he turned into 91 yards per game. Then, he passed his career high in touches and fell off of a complete cliff. Some blame an ankle injury that cost him his game in week ten, but in his two games after that ankle injury, he averaged 115 yards per game on 14.5 carries and 2.5 receptions per game. It was after those two games that everything fell apart, because a 30 year old return specialist suddenly had a ton of wear & tear on his body.
After that point, Patterson’s touches dropped only slightly, down to 10 carries and 2.5 catches per game. But, his efficiency fell through the floor. Where he averaged 6.7 yards per touch in his torrid games to start the year, that dropped to 2.7 yards per touch, which is (and I don’t have to tell you this) not good.
2022 Cordarrelle Patterson Fantasy Football Draft Strategy:
Cordarrelle Patterson Salary Cap Value: $1
Draft Ranking: Find out for your league settings in a Beersheet! (coming in early July)
I’m out on Cordarrelle Patterson for fantasy football this season. He’s going to be 31, has no career sustained success, is going to be on a bad offense, and has a crowded backfield with Tyler Allgeier and Damien Williams stealing touches (as well as Marcus Mariota stealing carries). His best value was as a pass catcher, but the Falcons upgraded from Russell Gage to Drake London at wide receiver, so there isn’t much of an unfettered path forward there, either. He’s hemmed in on all sides, and I just don’t want him.
But, if you want him, and you think that everything I said was hogwash, then you have a good value (RB32 by ADP, pick 91, and $3 by AAV). I’m not particularly interested in spending more than $1 on him in a salary cap draft, and I really don’t want to take him over guys like Tony Pollard, Melvin Gordon, and Rashod Bateman (who all go in the next five picks).
Best Case Scenario:
Cordarrelle Patterson staves off the other two backs and gets a lower volume that preserves his efficiency throughout the year. He finishes around 5-6 running back spots higher than he started.
Worst Case Scenario:
He’s a 31-year-old special teamer who averaged fewer than 3 yards per touch down the stretch last season and got two backfield running mates and the team upgraded at receiver, all while downgrading at quarterback. He has the ultimate downside: you desperately need to drop him but are too scared to do it so you hang on too long.
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[Statistics are sourced from pro-football-reference.com, airyards.com, and ftnfantasy.com]
