Big Blue View
Patterson believe Robertson-Harris, even at age 32 entering his ninth season, has yet to play his best football
New York Giants defensive lineman Roy Robertson-Harris has had a solid, successful NFL career.
After signing with the Chicago Bears as an undrafted free agent out of Texas El-Paso in 2016, Robertson-Harris has played in 117 games with 62 starts for three NFL teams over eight seasons. He has played nearly 4,500 defensive snaps. He has 19 sacks and 211 tackles. He has earned almost $40 million.
Robertson-Harris signed a two-year, $9 million contract ($5.3 million guaranteed) with the Giants this offseason. That followed a season during which he was traded from the Jacksonville Jaguars to the Seattle Seahawks. The Seahawks released him in March.
The Giants took Robertson-Harris off the free agent market less than a week later with a contract that might seem generous.
Why?
A big part of that has to do with veteran defensive line coach Andre Patterson.
Patterson was the defensive line coach at Texas El-Paso from 2010-12, helped recruit Robertson-Harris to the school, and coached him during Robertson-Harris’s freshman season.
Patterson tried to get the 6-foot-5, 290-pound Robertson-Harris to sign with the Minnesota Vikings, where he was coaching, back in 2016.
“I tried like heck to get him when I was in Minnesota and he came out,” Patterson told Big Blue View. “We tried to sign him as a free agent. His parents wanted him to come with me, but I was loaded. I had like 13 D-linemen and his agent convinced him to go to Chicago.”
Patterson now finally gets to work with him. Even though Robertson-Harris turns 32 on July 23, the day the first practice of training camp is scheduled, Patterson believes there is untapped potential in his former collegiate recruit.
“Oh, there’s no question. There’s a lot of growth left in him,” Patterson said. “And he’s hungry and he comes out every day to get better. So, I’m really excited about where he could go.
“Roy has a bunch of upside. I mean, he has not even come close to reaching his potential.”
Patterson has admitted many times that he is anything but a “cookie-cutter” defensive line coach. What and how he teaches can be vastly different than what players have heard and how they have been trained most of their football lives. Many players have benefitted from listening to Patterson’s teachings.
Patterson found Elvis Dumervil for the Denver Broncos. He developed Danielle Hunter from an under-achieving college player into one of the NFL’s premier pass rushers. Ex-Giant Linval Joseph had the best years of his career playing for Patterson in Minnesota.
With the Giants, it was Patterson who unlocked Dexter Lawrence’s full potential, taking him from good to great player. Even Elijah Chatman, who made the Giants’ roster a year ago as an under-sized 5-foot-11, 285-pound undrafted free agent defensive tackle, likely owes his NFL opportunity to Patterson.
“There’s no question” players have to be willing to buy into what Patterson...
