The Falcons dropped their initial depth chart for the 2023 season, and the surprises were few. The one that attracted the most attention by far was the giant bolded J next to Cordarrelle Patterson’s name.
For a couple of hours, Twitter (X? whatever) was abuzz with questions of what the designation meant. The answer is pretty simple: Patterson has become the Joker.
While the league may not be thrilled with Arthur Smith’s carefree attitude toward depth chart organization—the Falcons not only have twelve listed starters, but I can’t recall that I’ve seen Joker actually listed out as a position on an NFL depth chart before—the designation makes a ton of sense for what Patterson’s role is expected to be and frankly should be in this offense.