The Kansas City Chiefs are still looking for free agent wide receiver help, but the best choice is the least obvious.
Perhaps the most shocking plot twist of the NFL season last year was the high octane Kansas City Chiefs offense getting completely shut out in the Super Bowl.
Patrick Mahomes made highlight reel plays that we’ve come to expect from him, but for the first time in his professional career it didn’t mean a thing. For every wild play Mahomes made, the Chiefs offense floundered.
The offensive line bore the brunt of the blame for the poor performance, but questions have popped up all over the roster this offseason. Most notably, the Chiefs are in need of a No. 2 receiver next to Tyreek Hill but so far they’ve been as successful at doing so as they were scoring touchdowns in the Super Bowl.
T.Y. Hilton was floated as an option and JuJu Smith-Schuster was offered a contract (that he rejected to return to Pittsburgh), and Sammy Watkins officially vacated the position this past week. There’s an obvious choice, though, that needs to start getting more attention.
Should Kansas City Chiefs take a chance on Cordarrelle Patterson?
Cordarrelle Patterson is a number of things: Wide receiver, running back, return specialist. All of those things make him the type of versatile offensive weapon that seems tailor-made to be used in cockamamie schemes cooked up by Andy Reid and Eric Bieniemy.
The allure of bringing Patterson into the Chiefs offense speaks for itself, but as KC Kingdom pointed out his special teams prowess is a true clincher:
What gives Patterson even more of an upside is his ability to return kicks, which would also add to what special teams coach Dave Toub could do as well. Even at nearly 30 years old in 2020, he still tallied over 1,000 yards on kick returns.
Patterson has been a special teams ace ever since coming into the league, and would provide the Chiefs with yet another way to score. It’s one thing to have Patterson on the field lining up behind Mahomes or alongside Hill and Travis Kelce, but he has the ability to score without any of those three ever leaving the sideline.
Hill has been the Chiefs most dangerous return man, but Patterson would add another dynamic. While we’re all marveling at what Reid and Bieniemy could do with Patterson’s versatility, his best value might come with what special teams coach Dave Toub draws up with a weapon like Patterson at his disposal.