Short and stat-based discussion post for you night owls to munch on.
If you're a game thread regular, then you've seen many Falcoholics lament Roddy White's incurable case of the dropsies. That ire is somewhat justified, as he did drop more balls than any other WR in the league. But, let's be fair, he was targeted more and caught more passes than any WR not named Wes.
Read this article if you have a moment. Out of 91 ranked WRs, Roddy's drop rate ranked 72nd; however, some notable WRs had worse drop rates than Roddy (Desean Jackson, Brandon Marshall, and Donald Driver). Moreover, almost all of the 20 WRs with the lowest drop rates weren't targeted anywhere near as much as Roddy was.
Here's the bottom line: Yes he dropped a lot of passes this year. Nonetheless, those dropped passes, in my humble but accurate opinion, don't diminish his contributions. Not at all. He drops a lot of balls. But he catches a lot of balls for a lot of yardage. Heck, he's had a top ten yardage total for the past four years. This season he (and Wes Welker) earned more first downs than any other player in the league. I for one can look past 15 dropped passes if he's contributing at that level.
Discuss!