Return game value key to Cordarrelle Patterson signing

While Matt Nagy is absolutely going to use Cordarrelle Patterson as a weapon on offense, he brings enough value on special teams alone

The Chicago Bears signing of Cordarrelle Patterson is underrated. He is going to be a piece of this offense and is going to cause headaches to defenses when Matt Nagy busts out his unique personnel packages.

However, one of the more important uses of Patterson is going to come in the return game.

Matt Nagy saw his return game value first hand when the Chicago Bears hosted the New England Patriots last season. Up 17-7 the Chicago Bears had all of the momentum. Then, they kicked off to Patterson.

Patterson took the kick back to the house and changed the entire construct of the game.

You better believe that return stuck in the back of Nagy’s mind. While that was his only return game touchdown of 2018, he does have six return touchdowns in his career.

Returning a kick for a touchdown is only part of the value an elite return specialist has, though.

When the kickoff rules changed and touchbacks moved out to the 25 some teams changed their strategy. The NFL was encouraging returners to kneel in the end zone more. Teams decided instead to have their kicks land short of the end zone, in the hopes that they would tackle the return man before the 25. It was a cheap way to pick up a few yards.

With Cordarrelle Patterson, teams are inclined to kick it into the end zone and force the Bears to start at the 25. The penalty for kicking to Patterson is too severe.

At the end of the day Patterson is making $5 million per year and Josh Bellamy just signed for $3.5 per year. Both bring special teams value but Patterson makes a bigger impact in that the ball will literally be in his hands. That alone is worth the extra couple of million.

The stuff he is going to do on offense is the icing on the cake.