Yeah, I think we're in agreement here. You bring up good points about CP's hip injury, as well as him being very green and needing development. Again, I don't mean to imply he's some kind of lazy no-account. I do think, however, there was some disappointment on the part of the coaching staff where his development was concerned -- for whatever those reasons were. I'm glad Zimmer and company are taking the positive step of getting him help, and I'm particularly glad CP is accepting it. That bodes well for his chances.Mothman wrote: I think it suggests that Zimmer believed Patterson needs more work and needs to develop more of an "NFL" mentality (whatever that is... I assume Zimmer knows). However, I don't necessarily think it calls Patterson's work ethic or attitude toward his job into question.
I think it's easy in this age of high expectations for rookie players for people to forget that some players enter the league still needing a LOT of work and that disappointing results might reflect nothing more than that lack of experience. I don't think that's what you're doing but generally speaking, there seems to be a lot of impatience for Patterson out there, sometimes accompanied by implications that he's too dumb to learn the offense, that he's not giving enough effort, that he's a self-centered, publicity-hungry player who cares more about stardom than hard work, etc. I don't know to what extent, if any at all, that stuff is true but I do know a person can work hard, have a great attitude, put forth a very sincere effort and still need a lot more work to achieve a certain level of performance in their profession. It's a process and Patterson, since high school, has had 2 years of community college football, one year of football with a big NCAA school, and 2 years in two different offensive systems as a pro. I imagine working with someone to help refine his routes, developing a more disciplined mindset and spending a second season in the same system for the first time in years could all be very good for him. Time will tell...
i think it had a huge impact on him and I imagine injuring his hip impacted him for a while too. Losing Peterson left Patterson as one of the only real game-breakers remaining on the offense, if not the only game-breaker, and it was easier to focus on him without that big time threat on the backfield.
I'm also impressed that Zimmer hasn't ripped him in the press, as some coaches are prone to doing. Zimm is obviously a no-nonsense guy, but he also seems to realize that airing anything in the press ALWAYS has bad consequences. You'd think that would be obvious, but there are plenty of coaches (and players) who don't seem to get it.
