Welcome to the terrible take a daily segment telling Steelers Nation what's on our mind. I'm Ross McCorkle. I would admit I was a little skeptical of the signing of kick return specialist Cordell Patterson earlier in the off season. Yes, he is one of the best kick return specialists of all time and the rule change is intriguing enough to be worth a shot. But then he admitted his body was a 2 out of 10

in terms of conditioning just a month before the start of training camp.

So when he showed up to training camp on the non-football injury list with a hamstring issue,

I was pretty concerned that the 33-year-old would not be able to bounce back to be the contributor

that the Steelers hoped he would be.

After having eight kick returns for touchdowns in his first eight seasons in the NFL

Patterson had just won in the last three and if you look at his usage on

offense in 2023 under Arthur Smith on the Atlanta Falcons,

he only had 50 rushing attempts for 181 yards and nine receptions for 38 yards.

It looked to me like he was beginning to wash out of the league.

He has since been activated from that list and played three snaps in the second

pre-season game against the bills and four snaps against the Detroit Lions in the preseason

finale.

In those seven snaps, he touched the ball five times for 31 yards and a touchdown. and

in those seven snaps he touched the ball five times for 31 yards and a touchdown, but it was the touchdown run that changed my mind on Patterson

and what he can add to the team.

He turned on the jets and exploded through the hole

in the middle of the offensive line behind

Zach Frazier and Isaac Samalo for a 31-yard touchdown.

He looked explosive and fast.

That type of play is exactly what he will need in the new kickoff rule to be successful.

I would have liked to have seen him more in the new rule during the preseason, but I think he can be

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