Cordarrelle Patterson on Marquette King's Raiders Exit: 'People Didn't Like Him'

New England Patriots wideout Cordarrelle Patterson said on Good Morning Football on Wednesday that his former teammates on the Oakland Raiders didn't like punter Marquette King.

"People didn't like him, dude," Patterson said, per Jeremy Bergman of NFL.com. "He was kind of like a diva, but he wasn't. He wouldn't show it that much. He was just crazy, man. He had fun though. I respect him as a person, but he just did things a little different."

Pro Football Focus ranked King, 29, third among all punters in 2017 (h/t Paul Gutierrez of ESPN.com), making his release perplexing. While cutting him saved the Raiders $2.85 million against the 2018 cap, it seemed like small savings for a player who also finished third in net punting average (42.7 yards).

As Gutierrez noted, however, it's more likely issues with King's personality played the deciding factor:

"...There had been whispers that perhaps returning coach Jon Gruden's decidedly old-school ways might not have jibed with King's larger-than-life personality, especially for a punter.

"But technically, Gruden was not allowed to meet with King to talk about football matters until April 9, so he could not have asked King about his antics, both on (a punter picking up unsportsmanlike penalties?) and off (his posing with Aqib Talib at the 2017 Pro Bowl to reenact Talib's first chain-snatching episode with Michael Crabtree did not sit well in the Raiders' locker room) the field."

King has since signed with the Denver Broncos, and he made it clear that picking a Raiders rival wasn't coincidental, per Mike Klis of 9News: 

Raiders defensive end Bruce Irvin didn't take kindly to those remarks: 

It's rare for a punter to pour fuel on a rivalry. But it seems when King and the Broncos face the Raiders in 2018, there will be little love lost between him and his old team.