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Sig Stats Snapshot: Dropped Passes per QB

There are a lot of things that bother me in the NFL. How offensive lines take sole responsibility for the sacks their team gives up, or how much faith people put in yardage as a marker of a good (or bad) offense or defense.

But one of the things I really hate is when people make excuses for quarterbacks by saying they had a lot of dropped passes… as if their quarterback is the only guy.

Well, fortunately, we here at Pro Football Focus track these dropped passes with the staff applying simple criteria in deciding what constitutes one: could he get his hands on it and was it catchable.

It means that right now we can tell you which quarterback has suffered from the most dropped passes in the league and how that impacts their completion percentage.

Lions Not Helping Their QB

Few would argue that Matthew Stafford is having a year as good as his 2011, but then he’s not exactly getting a lot of help with his receivers and backs combining to drop a league-leading 33 passes. Titus Young may be in the doghouse now, but the chief culprits have been Calvin Johnson (nine) and Brandon Pettigrew (seven). The Lions' season has been full of mistakes and not catching the ball has been one of them.

[table id=639 /]

Percentage of attempts that are dropped? (Page 2)

Sophomore Struggles

Adapting to life in the NFL is never easy, and you can use as much help as you get. Well, a couple of sophomore quarterbacks really aren't getting that. Nobody has had a higher percentage of their attempted passes dropped than Jake Locker, with a massive 11% of his attempts being catchable, yet not caught.

After him it’s Blaine Gabbert and we’ve managed to find one statistic that does support him. His 9.7% of attempted passes dropped is the second-highest of any quarterback and he finds himself in good company with Aaron Rodgers in third.

Meanwhile, Joe Flacco doesn’t have many excuses with a league-low 3.8% of attempted passes dropped. Those are elite numbers for sure, it’s just a shame he’s not matching them with his own performance. His number is matched by Philip Rivers, whose slide from elite quarterback to mediocrity is continuing, despite his receivers catching what balls are catchable.

Here’s the list:

[table id=640 /]

What does it mean? (Page 3)

So what can we interpret from this? In an ad hoc fashion, I’ve created my own Signature Stat. It’s very similar to some other Pro Football Focus ones out there, but it is essentially an ‘adjusted completion percentage'. You treat the drops as completions and, hey, presto! You’ve got an improved completion percentage.

To the surprise of nobody, Peyton Manning leads the way here. Alex Smith drops from first overall to fourth and the big climber is Robert Griffin III who jumps from sixth to third. Down at the other end of the scale it doesn’t make good reading for Mark Sanchez. He’s dealt with his drops but still has the lowest percentage out there, though it’s Josh Freeman he’s only just above.

Make of that what you will. Here’s the complete list:

[table id=641 /]

 

Now, to be honest, completion percentage is all fine and dandy, but it doesn’t go into the detail that our grading and Signature Stats like Accuracy Percentage do. I just wanted to add the one extra layer of context to some of the box score numbers out there and see how it altered a few things.

Enjoy.

 

Follow Khaled on Twitter: @PFF_Khaled

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