The Bears usually refer to him by his first name or his initials, but wide receiver Cordarrelle Patterson has a more creative nickname he’d like his new teammates to consider.
“I’m one of those guys where you’ll be like, ‘Damn!’” he said. “You’ll see me and you’ll just say, ‘Damn!’ I’m telling you, just call me, ‘Damn!’ because when I get the ball it’s like, ‘Damn, he’s about to do this.’ It’s crazy.”
The Bears’ receivers were already brimming with swagger, and Patterson’s arrival pushed them over the top. He’s an electric athlete, has a Super Bowl ring and doesn’t grasp the concept of doubt.
When he showed up in Minnesota as a first-round pick in 2013, Patterson was so audacious that Pro Bowl receiver Greg Jennings just shook his head and marveled that he’d never seen such a confident rookie. That trait swelled over the years, and it’s the reason Patterson has thrived in various roles in his career.
The Patriots scooped him up last year with an idea of shifting him to a part-time running back, and he averaged 5.4 yards on 42 carries. No problem. He also had 21 catches for 247 yards and scored five all-purpose touchdowns.
Tom Brady dubbed him “The Experiment” because he was talented enough to try anything.
“I don’t set my eyes low on anything,” Patterson said. “There’s nothing I believe I can’t do on the football field. That’s the confidence I have every day.”
He doesn’t take it as a joke when someone playfully asks whether he thinks he could hop over to tight end or even linebacker.
“Give me a couple reps at it and I’ll feel like I can make a play,” he said.
Why stop there? Maybe Patterson could solve the Bears’ kicker quandary.
“Man, I can kick,” he scoffed. “I can do everything.”
Coach Matt Nagy won’t ask quite that much out of him, but his mind has been spinning with gadgets and formations for his new weapon. Patterson is big enough at 6-2, 228 to line up pretty much anywhere and has the moves to turn short passes into huge gains.
The Bears also expect him to be their No. 1 kick returner, a position at which he was an all-pro for the Vikings in 2013 and ’16. Patterson has averaged 30 yards per return and has six touchdowns for his career.
Nagy won’t unveil any creative designs in the preseason opener Thursday against the Panthers, and it’s unclear whether veterans like Patterson will play at all. Once the season starts, however, it could get crazy.
“There’s not a limit,” said Nagy, who likened Patterson’s energy and versatility to Tarik Cohen and Chiefs dynamo Tyreek Hill. “He can do a lot of different things.”
It’d be fascinating to know all the plans Nagy was thinking but resisted saying. The Bears saw what Patterson did with the Patriots — they witnessed some of it firsthand, actually, when he ran a kickoff back 95 yards for a touchdown at Soldier Field — and dreamed of expanding it.
The first few months working together have affirmed the signing, a two-year deal worth $10 million, for both sides. The coach with tons of ideas and the player who thinks he can do them all looks like a perfect match.
“That means we should get married, huh, if we’ve got that much in common?” Patterson said, laughing. “Just looking at Coach Nagy and the things he did in the past, it’s kind of a no-brainer. Who wouldn’t want to be in a position like this?”
