Jarrett Patterson 2023 NFL Draft profile: Scout report for the Notre Dame IOL
Jarrett Patterson, Notre Dame
6‘4“, 305 pounds; RS SR
A four-star OT recruit in 2018, Patterson was very much the look of a tackle, but a lack of length and where he excelled made the Irish put him inside. He appeared in just three games as a redshirt freshman, but has since started 46 total games, being one of the most consistent centers in the country and being on the watch list for the Rimington Trophy and others perennially. He decided to return for a fifth season when he transitioned to left guard in 2022 and repeated his brilliance, being named first-time All-Independent in back-to-back years.
+ Can anchor and drive better than you’d expect for his weight class, holding his own against shade nose tackles
+ Despite his height, Patterson finds ways to create leverage with his hands and get underneath the pads of defenders in the front-seven
+ Very good with his angles and understands how to effectively shield guys away from the action, Has the grip strength to twist D-tackles and pin them away from the action even if he can’t get his body across
+ Does a nice job of timing up when he comes off the down-lineman on zone combos, but when he’s the one staying on that guy as the linebacker shoots down, he can create that little extra turn and churn his legs to create a lane between them
+ Excellent mobility to cut off and beat linebackers to the spot when climbing up to the second level, while driving his legs through contact
+ Strong hands and dexterity to deal with force being applied to his shoulder(s), and simply has a knack to deliver that little shove late on, to open up that lane for the ball-carrier
+ Is familiar with traps, kickouts and long pulls, where he doesn’t stop his feet and latches onto targets in space pretty effectively
+ Recognizes when edge defenders negate that space to the down-blocker when they’re supposed to be kicked out and pivots his base around at contact, to show the ball-carrier to work around him
+ Notre Dame’s screen game was highly dependent on Patterson’s ability to get out in front – I love watching him hustle his ass off in that regard, looking like he is running as fast as he somehow can with arms pumping hard and leading the convoy
+ Quick to land his hands and take charge in big-on-big protection against nose-tackles, with the dexterity in his upper half to stay attached as they try to dip their shoulder and get to his edges
+ If rushers do swat his reach away, Patterson will stab with one hand and then re-fit
+ There’s so many reps where he has his elbow in tight, lifts from the ground and just stalemates those guys
+ Very active feet in pass-pro, shuffling good at a good pace on slide protections and being quick to redirect when there’s no threat to that A-gap or he can give a shove to guys slanting across, to help out the other guard or pick up a wrap-around blitzer
+ Consistently rides rushers off track who try to work around him on wider angles
+ Has such a good feel for the space to his teammates and when to gain depth based on the rush, and to be able to attach to the hip of either guy next to him, to help out or take over defenders
+ Keeps his head on a swivel after the snap, when not directly tasked with a defender in protection, even as he has hands on somebody drifting further outside, he’s looking for a threat up the opposite A-gap
+ Patterson may have the most impressive statistic of any player in this draft regardless of position – he never charged with a single sack in four years as a starter (1607 pass-blocking snaps) by PFF, along with exactly one hit in each of the past three years (21 total pressures on over 900 pass-blocking snaps since 2021)
– Average athlete by NFL standards, while his 31 and 3/8-inch arms are in the bottom-two percentile
– Can certainly get pretty top-heavy in the run game and that may be more on display in spread-out offenses
– Doesn’t have the brute force to plow A-gap defenders out of the way or the great agility to consistently complete reach-blocks against three-techniques
– On gap schemes he’s still late to come off combos on quite a few occasions and allows LBs to shoot the gap – Not the most sudden at adjusting to second-level movement as guys try to back-door him basically
– Crafty interior rushers could punish him with the push-pull as his weight shifts forward trying to anchor against the bull-rush
This has been one of the elite offensive linemen in college football over the last three years – no doubt about it. Patterson’s ability to take care of his assignments in the run game with tremendous consistency and how he’s anchored the integrity of the pocket for the Irish will make him a legend in their program’s history. Unfortunately, I believe his marginal athletic talent and lack of length will be taken advantage of more regularly at the next level. You saw those things become an issue to some degree during Senior Bowl week, where he regularly got caught shifting his weight too far out front or overextending in pass-pro. Nevertheless, his grip strength to control blocks and his football IQ to handle a bunch of stuff thrown his way will make his future position coach fall in love with him. I believe he can absolutely be a starter in the NFL, but at worst he should be a quality sixth linemen for up to a decade.
Grade: Third round
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