No player this offseason embodies the collective hope of fantasy football players and experts attempting to "get ahead" of a prospect quite like Cordarrelle Patterson. The incredibly athletic but very raw Minnesota receiver has leapt up draft boards, currently sitting as a top-50 player and a top-20 receiver.
Our rankings say that's a very pie-in-the-sky outlook for the Tennessee product.
The high-end of Patterson's Confidence Interval would leave him ranked only 24th among receivers, while the low end would see him plummet to 55th at his position. So why the big disparity in rankings for the speedster?
How is he going to score? It's tough to predict long touchdown runs and catches as a reliable source of fantasy output for a player, and with multiple red zone targets in Minnesota (and a pretty good running back to boot) his chances to score aren't as reliable as many other receivers ahead of him in ADP.
In fact, our current projections have him scoring between four and five times next season, as compared to the eight or nine scores we're predicting for receivers in his current ADP range like Keenan Allen and Percy Harvin. Patterson will get a bit of a boost in PPR leagues, as the Vikings are likely to try to get the ball in his hands more often, including screen passes that add up to easy reception points. But the overall production just isn't there according to our metrics.
You can read more about Patterson and his current inflated ADP here, including more insight into how our numbers see the talented but unfinished Viking receiver.