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Fantasy Football: Can Cordarrelle Patterson be Miami's version of Deebo Samuel?

Cordarrelle Patterson was one of the feel-good stories of 2021, for both fantasy football and the real-life game.

No one really expected C-Patt to be a fantasy factor once he joined the Falcons as a 30-year-old veteran (he'll be 31 in March) going into the 2021 season. Most members of the fantasy community were busy discussing Mike Davis' chances of being a sleeper running back, or someone to ignore entirely in drafts. As such, Patterson pretty much flew under the radar. He went undrafted in most fantasy leagues.

Then, Week 2 of the 2021 season came and C-Patt began opening some eyes. The former gadget-and-special-teams ace not only ran the ball seven times (and scored a touchdown) for the Falcons that week but he five balls for 58 yards and another score.

The cat was out of the bag after that. Patterson began to show out on the ground and through the air, and he became one of the most popular waiver wire pickups. He produced to the point he transformed into a near-every-week starter.

Atlanta Falcons running back Cordarrelle Patterson had an excellent 2021 fantasy football season.
Cordarrelle Patterson was one of 2021's biggest fantasy football surprises. (AP Photo/Adrian Kraus) (ASSOCIATED PRESS)

Of course, we know his production tailed off in the second half. The direct reason why is up for debate — defenses either keyed in on him, or the lack of offensive threats around him indirectly hurt him or he himself ran out of gas — but C-Patt fell from his lofty status nonetheless. Even with that fall, however, the dual-threat finished as 2021 fantasy's ninth-highest-scoring running back in half-PPR leagues.

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Now, we move to 2022, with Patterson one of the most enigmatic figures of draft season.

Do we think his late-stage career resurgence will continue, whether that's back on the Falcons or on a new team? Or was 2021 just one last hurrah?

Liz Loza and Matt Harmon discuss Patterson's outlook in the video above, where Matt says that C-Patt could just be the Deebo Samuel figure new Miami head coach Mike McDaniel could be looking for.

Watch the video for their full take now!