A lot more physical than I initially thought. The more games you watch and especially if you make sure to pay attention to him on run plays and whatnot, the more you realize he's got an attitude on him. Not a ball of butcher knives and judo chops like Stedman Bailey but definitely spicy. And his size and strength do him service. I remember on one play against Georgia he runs the slant and a linebacker fans out to him right off the snap to "cover" him (which in linebacker-ese evidently meant just running straight into him and tackling him), Patterson didn't see him quickly enough to avoid him and so they collide. The linebacker slinks to the turf like a guy that just ran into a tree trunk at high speed, and Patterson is still standing, not even off balance. There's more subtle signs of that size and strength when you watch a bunch of the games.
Also purely faster than I initially thought. Cutting ability, change of direction, agility and burst are evident all over the place when watching him. He's like Tavon Austin only 7 inches taller. But that doesn't mean a guy is purely fast. On a lot of his straightaways there are guys running at least as fast as him on the field and not all of them are fast players. But then looking at it, a lot of those straightaways happen after multiple cuts. The human body isn't made to de-accelerate and then re-accelerate in the same run, you really can't recover all your speed. As I watched a bunch more games I found instances of him running verticals with guys like Branden Smith and Jaylen Watkins in coverage. Those guys run in the very low 4.4's. Both of them got on the hoof, pumping their arms, accelerating as much as they can to try and close on Patterson as he was looking up for the ball...and nada. Couldn't close any ground. Body language showed they were giving it all and just couldn't run fast enough. That told me what I needed to know on the pure speed and vertical threat front.
The tendency to body catch is there but not as bad as many fear. He's mostly using his body to shield the defender away from the catch which is pretty smart. When the situation is appropriate, he shows perfect willingness to stick his arms out and pluck the ball with his hands. He's not body catching because of a lack of confidence in his hands, IMO. I didn't like how much body catching Golden Tate did coming out and thought he'd essentially be redshirting his rookie year in the NFL while he irons it out. He seems to be no worse for the wear. Nor Roddy White.
The open field running and cutting were always evident, and highly impressive, and I often wondered aloud if weaknesses in physicality and body catching will even matter since he's so damn gifted with the ball in his hands. But those weaknesses weren't what I thought they were, and the more I research into his personality the more convincing he seems as a prospect.
