It’s become an epidemic.
Dropped passes have killed the Eagles all year, but Sunday night, Jordan Matthews and Co. took dropped passes to another level.
Various Eagles backs, tight ends and wide receivers dropped seven of Sam Bradford’s 46 passes, and if that seems like a lot, yeah, it’s a lot (see Film Review).
In fact, according to ESPN’s Stats and Information, the Eagles’ 15.2 drop percentage was the highest of any team in any game in the NFL this year.
By far.
Next-worst was actually also this past weekend, when Titans receivers dropped 11.4 percent of Zach Mettenbeger’s passes against the Falcons.
ESPN’s research also shows that for the season, Bradford has had the second-most passes dropped of any NFL quarterback — 5.8 percent. Only Brian Hoyer, with 6.1 percent, has been victimized more frequently.
NFL
Drops are not an official NFL stat, but according to STATS Inc., which tracks these things, the Eagles this year are second in the league with 18 drops through seven games. The Falcons lead the league with 20.
Bradford has completed 62 percent of his passes this year. If the drops were just cut in half — and that's still a lot of drops — he'd be at 65 percent.
The Eagles had 26 drops all last year and just 17 the year before, fifth-fewest in the league. In 2012, the last time DeSean Jackson and Jeremy Maclin played together, they had the fifth-fewest in the league with 25.
“Fundamental stuff,” head coach Chip Kelly said. “I think with some of those guys, I think sometimes they are probably thinking too much. Jordan is a guy that's, I don't know anybody who catches more balls during the week than him.
“He's here at 7 a.m. working on the JUGS machine. Sometimes, I think he just overthinks it and needs to take a deep breath and just go play. He has outstanding hands and has been a very clutch receiver for us.”
The worst drops Sunday night in the Eagles’ loss to the Panthers were Matthews’ early one that led to a Panthers interception and Josh Huff’s in the end zone.
“We had at least eight, could have been 10,” Kelly said. “And obviously, we're not going to win if we're doing that, you know what I mean?
“There are too many for us. We have to be able to sustain things and we have to be able to make catches out there.”
According to Stats Inc., Jordan Matthews, Ryan Mathews, Darren Sproles and DeMarco Murray each have three drops, although unofficially Matthews has twice that.
Riley Cooper is listed with two, and Miles Austin, Zach Ertz, Nelson Agholor and Josh Huff each have one.
Only six running backs league-wide have at least three drops, and three of them are Eagles.
There are 26 players in the NFL with at least three drops, and four of them are Eagles.
Bradford on Sunday completed 26 of 46 passes for 205 yards with no touchdowns and an interception.
If his receivers caught all seven passes they dropped?
He’s looking at something like 33 of 46 passes for 290 yards with one touchdown and no interceptions.
Just like that, his passer rating goes from 58.7 to 95.4.
And, more importantly, maybe the Eagles win.
Instead, they're 3-4 and a game behind the Giants in the NFC East going into their bye week.
“It's a little bit different story if we do catch those,” Kelly said. “But we didn't execute the way we need to execute in those situations.”