Eric Ebron scored 14 touchdowns last year, creating a false narrative that the Colts somehow had fixed his game. While they got more touchdown production out of him, he’s still the same drop-plagued head scratcher that he was with the Lions.
Ebron famously dropped 3 passes last week, playing a huge role in the loss to Raiders. Even last year (when he was at least scoring a bunch of touchdowns) Ebron dropped 9 passes. He dropped 12 percent of the catchable balls thrown his way, which is actually worse than in any of his final three years with the Lions.
| EBRON DROP NUMBERS | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Year | Team | Rec | Drop | Total | Pct |
| 2014 | Lions | 25 | 4 | 29 | 13.8% |
| 2015 | Lions | 47 | 5 | 52 | 9.6% |
| 2016 | Lions | 61 | 7 | 68 | 10.3% |
| 2017 | Lions | 53 | 3 | 56 | 5.4% |
| 2018 | Colts | 66 | 9 | 75 | 12.0% |
| 2019 | Colts | 8 | 4 | 12 | 33.3% |
Ebron is what he is. He’s never going to have great hands. But with how Frank Reich draws up plays, I imagine they’ll continue to successfully get him the ball in the red zone. Ebron still in the mix, I think, to catch 7-8 TDs.
Here be all tight ends who’ve been the intended target on at least 50 passes since the start of the 2016 season. Only a few have worse drop rates than Ebron. (Only two tight ends have dropped over 13 percent of their catchable balls, by the way, and those guys are currently the top 2 tight ends for the Browns – Ricky Seals-Jones and Demetrius Harrs.
| TIGHT END DROPS SINCE 2016 | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Player | Rec | Drop | Total | Pct |
| Zach Miller | 67 | 0 | 67 | .0% |
| Jason Witten | 146 | 2 | 148 | 1.4% |
| Jordan Reed | 147 | 3 | 150 | 2.0% |
| Greg Olsen | 142 | 3 | 145 | 2.1% |
| Dennis Pitta | 86 | 2 | 88 | 2.3% |
| Hunter Henry | 85 | 2 | 87 | 2.3% |
| Kyle Rudolph | 209 | 5 | 214 | 2.3% |
| Zach Ertz | 292 | 8 | 300 | 2.7% |
| Nick Boyle | 66 | 2 | 68 | 2.9% |
| Rhett Ellison | 58 | 2 | 60 | 3.3% |
| James O'Shaughnessy | 51 | 2 | 53 | 3.8% |
| Jack Doyle | 176 | 7 | 183 | 3.8% |
| Darren Fells | 49 | 2 | 51 | 3.9% |
| Cameron Brate | 144 | 6 | 150 | 4.0% |
| Rob Gronkowski | 141 | 6 | 147 | 4.1% |
| O.J. Howard | 70 | 3 | 73 | 4.1% |
| Delanie Walker | 160 | 7 | 167 | 4.2% |
| Gerald Everett | 67 | 3 | 70 | 4.3% |
| Antonio Gates | 111 | 5 | 116 | 4.3% |
| C.J. Uzomah | 82 | 4 | 86 | 4.7% |
| Tyler Eifert | 59 | 3 | 62 | 4.8% |
| Benjamin Watson | 96 | 5 | 101 | 5.0% |
| Austin Hooper | 167 | 9 | 176 | 5.1% |
| Austin Seferian-Jenkins | 74 | 4 | 78 | 5.1% |
| Tyler Higbee | 73 | 4 | 77 | 5.2% |
| Julius Thomas | 71 | 4 | 75 | 5.3% |
| Will Tye | 52 | 3 | 55 | 5.5% |
| Martellus Bennett | 85 | 5 | 90 | 5.6% |
| Darren Waller | 49 | 3 | 52 | 5.8% |
| Seth Devalve | 48 | 3 | 51 | 5.9% |
| Trey Burton | 122 | 8 | 130 | 6.2% |
| Evan Engram | 136 | 9 | 145 | 6.2% |
| George Kittle | 148 | 10 | 158 | 6.3% |
| Travis Kelce | 295 | 20 | 315 | 6.3% |
| Coby Fleener | 72 | 5 | 77 | 6.5% |
| Mark Andrews | 57 | 4 | 61 | 6.6% |
| Charles Clay | 127 | 9 | 136 | 6.6% |
| Gary Barnidge | 55 | 4 | 59 | 6.8% |
| Vernon Davis | 122 | 9 | 131 | 6.9% |
| Jimmy Graham | 186 | 14 | 200 | 7.0% |
| Jesse James | 117 | 9 | 126 | 7.1% |
| Ed Dickson | 52 | 4 | 56 | 7.1% |
| Josh Hill | 52 | 4 | 56 | 7.1% |
| Marcedes Lewis | 52 | 4 | 56 | 7.1% |
| Nick Vannett | 50 | 4 | 54 | 7.4% |
| Dwayne Allen | 48 | 4 | 52 | 7.7% |
| Ryan Griffin | 91 | 8 | 99 | 8.1% |
| C.J. Fiedorowicz | 68 | 6 | 74 | 8.1% |
| Jermaine Gresham | 79 | 7 | 86 | 8.1% |
| Jeff Heuerman | 55 | 5 | 60 | 8.3% |
| Tyler Kroft | 56 | 6 | 62 | 9.7% |
| Luke Willson | 46 | 5 | 51 | 9.8% |
| Jared Cook | 160 | 19 | 179 | 10.6% |
| David Njoku | 92 | 11 | 103 | 10.7% |
| Eric Ebron | 188 | 23 | 211 | 10.9% |
| Vance McDonald | 98 | 12 | 110 | 10.9% |
| Garrett Celek | 55 | 7 | 62 | 11.3% |
| Lance Kendricks | 90 | 12 | 102 | 11.8% |
| Virgil Green | 57 | 8 | 65 | 12.3% |
| Ricky Seals-Jones | 50 | 8 | 58 | 13.8% |
| Demetrius Harris | 49 | 13 | 62 | 21.0% |
—Ian Allan