Here’s a quick look at drops. Specifically, which plays drop the most passes. I’ll put up the guys at the other end of the spectrum in a separate post (the guys who do the best job of hanging onto them).
For this one, I’m not looking at just total numbers. It stands to reason that Brandon Marshall would drop a lot more passes than Doug Baldwin. Marshall had a lot more passes thrown his way; he had more opportunities to drop balls. So I’ve converted the drops into percentage of balls thrown.
For wide receivers, I’m looking at all guys who had at least 50 passes thrown in their direction. That includes balls thrown 10 feet over the receiver, but whatever. Gotta draw the line somewhere.
For tight ends and running backs, I’ve expanded it out to just 40 pass attempts needed to make the cut.
For wide receivers, Davone Bess is your drops leader. But he’s probably out of the league now, so whatever.
Tavon Austin comes in 2nd. They tried to make him a slot guy in St. Louis, and he struggled as a rookie. Didn’t do enough after the catch, and (as evidenced here) dropped too many balls.
New England two rookie receivers finished 3rd and 4th. They were not as effective as Brandon Lloyd had been in that spot the previous year.
Darrius Heyward-Bey is 5th. Dropped too many balls in Oakland, and that continued with the Colts.
I also see Wes Welker up there, and that’s not a surprise. He was in about the same spot a year ago. With the kind of routes he’s running, he’s often asked to catch the ball right before somebody clobbers him. Some of those balls are bound to be knocked out, and I think it’s also realistic to expect he’d pull up a little sometimes, distracted by a hit that’s coming.
| WIDE RECEIVERS WITH OVER 6% DROPS | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Team | Player | Drop | Att | Pct |
| Cle | Davone Bess | 9 | 86 | 10.5% |
| StL | Tavon Austin | 7 | 69 | 10.1% |
| NE | Kenbrell Thompkins | 7 | 70 | 10.0% |
| NE | Aaron Dobson | 7 | 72 | 9.7% |
| Ind | Darrius Heyward-Bey | 6 | 64 | 9.4% |
| Den | Wes Welker | 10 | 111 | 9.0% |
| Was | Santana Moss | 7 | 78 | 9.0% |
| Jac | Cecil Shorts III | 10 | 124 | 8.1% |
| Cin | Mohamed Sanu | 6 | 78 | 7.7% |
| Chi | Brandon Marshall | 12 | 164 | 7.3% |
| Car | Brandon LaFell | 6 | 86 | 7.0% |
| Oak | Denarius Moore | 6 | 86 | 7.0% |
| KC | Donnie Avery | 5 | 72 | 6.9% |
| Buf | Stevie Johnson | 7 | 101 | 6.9% |
| Ind | Reggie Wayne | 4 | 58 | 6.9% |
| NYJ | Santonio Holmes | 4 | 59 | 6.8% |
| Mia | Brian Hartline | 9 | 133 | 6.8% |
| StL | Austin Pettis | 4 | 63 | 6.3% |
| Cle | Greg Little | 6 | 99 | 6.1% |
Here’s the tight end numbers. Both of the top 2 guys are Ravens. Does that mean those guys are terrible? Or does some of that go to the quarterback?
Not all drops are created equal. There’s the Jackie Smith drop, when you’re standing and the ball comes right at you, clanging to the ground. Then there’s balls that are a little off to the side or behind or. Or the ball shows up a split second too late or whatever.
I don’t have access to the replays of the 4 drops for Dickson and Clark, but some of the blame on those might be attributed to Joe Flacco.
Not a lot of notable names at tight ends. I see Brent Celek. The other Philadelphia tight end – the iFart – will show up in the best hands list I post soon. Jared Cook is on there; he has great speed but isn’t a hands guy.
| TIGHT ENDS WITH OVER 5% DROPS | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Team | Player | Drop | Att | Pct |
| Bal | Ed Dickson | 4 | 43 | 9.3% |
| Bal | Dallas Clark | 4 | 52 | 7.7% |
| Ari | Rob Housler | 4 | 57 | 7.0% |
| StL | Jared Cook | 6 | 86 | 7.0% |
| Jac | Marcedes Lewis | 3 | 47 | 6.4% |
| Phi | Brent Celek | 3 | 51 | 5.9% |
| Was | Jordan Reed | 3 | 60 | 5.0% |
| Oak | Mychal Rivera | 3 | 60 | 5.0% |
As with the Ravens tight ends, there are two Detroit running backs near the top. That could mean that some of those failed plays were also affected by Matthew Stafford.
Reggie Bush is No. 1. That will be a surprise to many. But he was also right at the top last year in Miami. He does drop some alls.
Vereen had over 10 percent drops. That surprised me, but I saw him at times and thought he was really good. He has a lot more speed than Danny Woodhead, so they can run him on some different routes. But Woodhead has dropped only 1 pass out of about 150 in the last two years.
LeVeon Bell is up there. Should the Steelers be playing him on passing downs?
| RUNNING BACKS WITH OVER 6% DROPS | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Team | Player | Drop | Att | Pct |
| Det | Reggie Bush | 9 | 80 | 11.3% |
| NE | Shane Vereen | 7 | 69 | 10.1% |
| Pit | LeVeon Bell | 6 | 66 | 9.1% |
| Det | Joique Bell | 6 | 69 | 8.7% |
| Cle | Chris Ogbonnaya | 6 | 75 | 8.0% |
| KC | Jamaal Charles | 8 | 104 | 7.7% |
| Ten | Chris Johnson | 4 | 52 | 7.7% |
| Buf | Fred Jackson | 5 | 66 | 7.6% |
| Oak | Marcel Reece | 4 | 54 | 7.4% |
| Ari | Andre Ellington | 4 | 58 | 6.9% |
| NYJ | Bilal Powell | 4 | 58 | 6.9% |
| Den | Knowshon Moreno | 5 | 74 | 6.8% |
| Atl | Steven Jackson | 3 | 49 | 6.1% |
| Dal | DeMarco Murray | 4 | 66 | 6.1% |
—Ian Allan