Back in the summer of 2014, there wasn’t a brighter rising star in the fantasy football world than Cordarrelle Patterson.

The then-Vikings receiver was coming off an impressive rookie season, during which he scored nine touchdowns as a receiver/return man. Minnesota planned on expanding his role in the offense during the 2014 season, and many believed Patterson would revolutionize the sport as a do-it-all weapon.

It never happened. Patterson remained an effective return man and gadget player, but never developed into a good receiver. Minnesota declined his fifth-year option before the 2016 season and allowed Patterson to walk in free agency the following offseason. He landed in Oakland, where he didn’t make much of an impact before the Raiders shipped him, along with a sixth-round pick to New England for a fifth-rounder.

At 27, Patterson is just entering his athletic prime and could still emerge as a fantasy star. Bill Belichick seems to think that’s a possibility, at least according to Patterson…

How exactly can the Patriots do that? It may require a position change, which just might be Belichick’s master plan.

Belichick has been so good at maximizing the talents of unwanted players because he doesn’t ask them to do things they are incapable of doing. If the Patriots want to get the most out of Patterson, they’ll use him as a running back instead of a receiver.

Patterson isn’t an advanced route-runner, which will be a problem in New England’s complicated passing game. The best way to get the ball into his hands will be on running plays, and Patterson has proven to be an explosive runner. And not just on reverses and jet sweeps.

On the few occasions Oakland and Minnesota allowed Patterson to line up in the backfield, he put up big numbers. After his rookie season, Patterson carried the ball 15 times on plays where he was lined up as a traditional running back. Here’s what he did on those plays…

15 carries

148 yards

9.9 YPC

2 TDs

14 Broken tackles

We’re looking at a small sample size, and Patterson’s yards-per-carry is inflated by two big runs, but he looks like a legit running back on tape. We’ve put together a cut-up of all his runs out of the backfield. Judge for yourself…

Patterson doesn’t look like a receiver playing running back. He’s a hard-nosed runner who has the strength and balance to run through arm tackles. He’s got decent vision and reads blocks well. And when Patterson gets into the second level, his returner instincts kick in.

With Dion Lewis in Tennessee, the Patriots need another back who can line up out wide and create mismatches. Patterson, if he can make the transition to running back and get teams to treat him as a runner, should be able to do that. If he can, Patterson should be able to put Lewis-like numbers during the 2018 season.