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 is trying to teach them, the veteran defensive line coach admitted.
“The biggest thing is they’ve got to have a quest for knowledge. They’ve got to be hungry to learn,” Patterson said. “And in this league, for D-linemen, it’s more than about talent, right? You have to be a technician. You’ve got to have a quest to master your technique. That’s what makes you play as a D-lineman long in this league. If you’re just basing your game off of I’ve got great talent, it’s going to catch up to you and you’re not going to be around very long. And so they hear that message from the time they walk in the room.”
Patterson doesn’t hesitate to point to Lawrence in working with the Giants’ other defensive linemen.
“To have a guy like Dex sitting in the room, that they can see what he became once I got here because he became a great technician. And that took his God-given talent to another level,” Patterson said. “That makes it easier for me to sell that to these guys, is that you’ve got to work hard to be great at becoming a technician and mastering your craft.”
Robertson-Harris and Jeremiah Ledbetter were veteran offseason additions at a position that already included Lawrence and Rakeem Nunez-Roches. Darius Alexander was a third-round pick from whom big things are hoped for. Free-agent signee Chauncey Golston could see some time playing as a hand-in-the-ground defensive end. Chatman and other players like D.J. Davidson and Jordon Riley will vie for roster spots.
“I really like my room. I think it’s a great combination of veterans and youth,” Patterson said. “With all the other young guys that we’ve already had here, I think the big thing for me that I’m really pleased with is that Roy and Ledbetter don’t act like your normal veteran guys that have been in the league eight, nine years and come across like they’ve done it all, you know what I mean? And they know it all. They’re eager to learn.”
Robertson-Harris will be a big part of the defensive line rotation, and the production he has generally offered would be a boost to a line that didn’t have enough quality players a year ago.
If Patterson can squeeze even more production out of Robertson-Harris, that two-year contract will look like money well spent.