Ninth-year NFL veteran and return specialist Cordarrelle Patterson has been the biggest surprise of the 2021 fantasy football season (so far). The time to sell high is now, though — especially coming off his three-touchdown game against the Washington Football Team.
One of the most remarkable aspects of Patterson's season has been how productive he's been in limited playing time with the Atlanta Falcons. He's averaging only 30% of the team's rush attempts and running a route on only 30% of Matt Ryan's dropbacks, yet is the RB3 in PPR scoring through four weeks.
Patterson's rushing production hasn't been anything to write home about — he's averaging 6.8 attempts for 29.8 rushing yards per game at a 4.4 yards per carry rate — but he's been incredibly productive through the air. He leads all NFL backs with 235 receiving yards as well as four touchdown catches through Week 4. And that's on only 18 total receptions, the fourth-most among all running backs, including 12 behind the leader Najee Harris (26).
Something has to give, though. We will see Patterson's efficiency regress, though it's worth noting that could be offset with any increased playing time.
I'm projecting Patterson as a low-end RB2 for the rest of the season, but I would imagine you could trade him for a high-end RB2 right now.
