Kevin Seifert breaks down the good and the bad receivers in the NFC North, the ones who do and don't drop passes, and it's not a surprise that three Green Bay Packers made the bad list.
TE Jermichael Finley. Despite all the potential he's shown over the past four seasons, 2011 was his career year because he finally played in every game. But there's still room for improvement. He's inconsistent, which is surprising because the Packers should be able to find a mismatch for him to attack each week. But he's also got to stop dropping so many passes. I'm not sure this is an area he'll actually show improvement next season.
WR James Jones. Seifert mentions his troubles in 2009, but he might have been thinking about 2010, when a thumb injury was revealed late in the season by Mike McCarthy. Jones has been inconsistent throughout his career, but once his thumb was healed, he rebounded with a very good 69% catch rate in 2011. While Finley has to improve his catch rate, only 60% in 2011, Jones just has to maintain his improvement from last season.
WR Donald Driver. Over the past couple of seasons, there have been some frustrating moments when he's dropped passes in the middle of the field on a slant route that it seemed like he should have caught. However, his 2011 catch rate of 66% is actually higher than other seasons. His current job to catch fastballs from Aaron Rodgers in-between multiple defenders is probably a lot harder than it looks.
2 comments:
A couple of guys that need to work on catching the ball better, no doubt about it. Jones problems have been well documented, but he makes Plays! I can forgive a couple drops when you also score TD's and get downfield. Finley, as much as he dropped the ball last year had a profound impact on the offense and he too scored and made big plays. Driver gets alot of short passes thrown to him and doesn't do much w/ them after the catch anymore. His ypr is pretty low and he simply isn't elusive anymore. He needs to catch just about everything thrown his way since they are pretty short throws and he doesn't do anything after the catch.
I'm sorry I just don't see a reason to keep Driver unless he's catching the ball.
It's a little strange that the Packers have let so many veterans go over the past couple years, but Driver was brought back. That he's still better than Gurley and/or Borel is probably the reason. And that he took a pay cut because the Packers weren't going to pay him like a starter anymore.
And I've got no patience for any receiver who drops passes. The preseason, as far as it goes for receivers, is time to prove that you can hold onto the ball.
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