Speed and agility/lateral quickness/elusiveneness are some of Patterson's most obvious attributes that make him such a great open field runner, but size/strength are also a key to his success.
He did break a lot of tackles on his TD against STL, and there was bad tackling, but it is important to note he easily breaks through arm tackles. Lesser players might be hit flush, knocked off balance or gang tackled. He is fast/elusive enough so in a lot of cases defenders can only swat at him, and has the size/strength to shrug them off. He is basically the same size as Julio (maybe a little thicker since he is an inch shorter), and that is something that makes him so dangerous. The combination of size/strength/speed makes Jones a handful for defenders in the open field, and if he breaks one tackle, he can do a lot of damage. But Patterson is more elusive.
It is hard to think of comps for Patterson because he is in some ways unprecedented (Brian Baldinger was also recently saying he might be the best open field runner he has ever seen). Julio Jones with superior stop-start and make you miss ability is another possible comp. Patterson's suddenness, instant acceleration and burst are elite, but it is the almost Barry Sanders-like stop part of the stop-start equation, and his ability to decelerate and cut on a dime at his size, that kind of puts him in uncharted territory, and imo makes it hard to put a cap on his ceiling and upside. Players his size have no business moving like that, it almost defies physics.
Anatomy of an Ankle Breaker
Check out the last hard cut he made to get in the end zone, where he stopped/changed direction and allowed the defender's momentum to carry him out of position to make a play. Earlier I watched it a few times to see how he did it, but it is hard to see in real time, without freeze framing it several times in slightly different places. In the below highlight, it happens sometime after the :22 second mark, and it is over before it hits :23. There is a lot going on in that split second (involving several jab or stutter steps to suddenly decelerate, and kind of twisting his upper body and redirecting his momentum an instant before he rotated his hips and lower body around, completing the move to cut inside the defender), involving elite body control to execute a complicated series of coordinated moves effortlessly. He does seem to be a natural, like Willie Mays or Michael Jordan, making things that for most mortals would be impossible, look utterly routine.