We’re slowly but surely heading into Fall, which means my favorite season (no, not pumpkin spice) is upon us: football season.
Fans of the NFL will be treated to an opening game between the Kansas City Chiefs and the Detroit Lions tomorrow night, but some interesting roster moves in Atlanta are currently stealing all of the thunder from Thursday Night football.
For those that are familiar with the NFL and the Falcons, you are probably aware that the team in Atlanta is planning for their draft pick of running back Bijan Robinson to really pan out this year. He was recently moved to the top of the running back depth chart, meaning that fans and casual viewers alike should prepare to see Robinson get handed the ball a ton in his rookie season.
Moving Robinson to the top of the depth chart did shake things up a bit, considering that the Atlanta Falcons were somewhat of a “running back by committee” last year, with one of those RBs being the talented, swiss-army-knife-of-a-player in Cordarrelle Patterson.
In a shocking turn of events, he wasn’t even included on the team’s depth chart for the running back position, but only because it appears they’ve labeled him as something else:
In the past, Patterson has been a kick returner, a punt returner, a wide receiver, and a running back. He can basically do it all, which is where the new “J” position apparently comes into play.
Falcons head coach Arthur Smith recognized Cordarrelle as a “J-back,” or “joker” while talking to the media, appearing to relate the talented player to the versatility of a “joker” in a deck of cards:
To me, this whole thing kind of sounds like something you would tell a kid when they are upset that they didn’t get something they wanted. I could imagine a parent dealing with two of their kids, and one of the children is calling themselves the “King of Spaghetti-O’s” while the other kid also wants to be that. The parent would probably try to de-escalate the situation by saying:
“Hey, you know what? Your brother is going to be the King of Spaghetti-O’s, but guess what? You can be the King of the Oreos, which is just as cool!
Some people might even think that being the King of Oreos is even better.”
Translation: Cordarrelle didn’t get the starting running back job, but the Falcons had a position that’s “even better” than being a RB, and created a new position specifically for him.
As long as Patterson is okay with it, I guess it’s all going to be alright, and based on his recent social media post, it looks like the talented football player is more than happy to play at the team’s “joker” position:
