Minnesota Vikings wide receiver Cordarrelle Patterson (84) gets set for a drill at the Minnesota Vikings rookie minicamp at Winter Park. Bruce Kluckhohn-USA TODAY Sports
The biggest and possibly only knock on receiver Cordarrelle Patterson coming out of Tennessee was he might be a little too raw and may lack the mature learning capacity to grasp an NFL offense immediately after only one season of major-college football.
Obviously, Patterson, disagrees.
The Vikings hope he’s right because they shipped four draft picks to New England to move back into the first round and take Patterson 29th overall.
It’s still very early in the process, but the Vikings were impressed by how seriously Patterson took this past week’s rookie minicamp from a classroom standpoint. He spent about two hours studying his playbook on Thursday night, the eve of the three-day camp. Then he woke up early Friday and brushed up some more on his job as the ‘X’ receiver in about 20 pass plays that would be run that day.
“They’re just seeing how much we can learn by throwing it at us this quick,” Patterson said. “But it’s not what I expected. I’m getting it faster than I thought I would.”
That, of course, could change as more is thrown at him.
Even Patterson admitted as much. But he doesn’t buy the notion that he’ll fall behind the normal learning curve for an NFL receiver. Not with all the special attention that he was seen receiving from Vikings receivers coach George Stewart.
“I really don’t think it’s going to take that long,” Patterson said. “Coach Stewart has already said he and I are going to have a lot of sessions. So he’ll make sure I know everything. We’re going to spend extra time. I know everything is going to be good.”
