dropping passes

last year i watched johnson drop some easy passes. heyward jefferies would have caught 200 passes for the season if he wouldn't have dropped so many of moon's passes. if johnson is to achieve the greatness he's capable of, he'll have to find a way to hang on to all the gimmes as well as the close ones. the acrobatic catches are wonderful things to watch, but when you drop 6, it slays me as well as everyone involved. this should be our breakout year. i will be disappointed if we stay relatively healthy and not make the playoffs. afterall, we do have a little bench depth now. hey, DC, take our team to the next level. if you need anything, just hollar. big dave

[Fiddy]

AJ had only one more drop then Randy Moss last year, infantrycak posted that stat and here it is:
http://www.houstontexans.com/fan_zon...1&postcount=17

T.O. had more or about the same as AJ, I think.

All the star WRs in the league make the great ones, but drop the easy ones. You have to live with it.

[Grid]

I think the difference in that is how many balls they each had thrown to them. if Moss had 100 thrown to him and dropped 10.. and Johnson had 60 thrown to him and dropped 10.. that looks worse on Johnson.

But im not worried about it.. it was his rookie season and he still did great. he can only get better.

[scourge]

Here is a link to shed a little light on the subject. notice that DD is on the list as well, but not many of you are complaining about his hands...

[texan279]

IMO 10 dropped passes is not all that bad for a rookie

[jhawktx]

He was just a rookie so I'm not worried about that at this point.

[Mistril48]

You can improve the number on drops somewhat through practice, but that conbination of size, strength and speed .... priceless.

[beerlover]

From memory it seemed AJ's most glaring drops where when Ragone filled in for David. This is not a knock on Ragone or AJ, just that the lefty had a different spin on the ball and not enough practice together for the WR's to adjust. I really thought Ragone came in and performed well but he just does not compliment David Carr in the fact the ball spins the opposite direction.

[Vinny]

I don't buy that spin stuff. I can't understand the logic behind it and I don't think that had much to do with it. Steve Young never had any trouble following Joe Montanna.

[Texman]

AJ dropped some passes he probably should have caught but I recall a couple that should have been impossible that he managed to pull in with those huge hands of his. John Stallworth dropped his share for the Steelers too but......I rest my case. Ragone wasn't a ball 'o fire but he stood his ground and played hard doing the best he could with what there was to work with. This ain't the movies where the untested rookie comes in and blows the bad guys off the field so I wouldn't be too concerned with Dave at the moment. We have descent depth and still missing a few pieces to the puzzle but you can count on our TEXANS to show up and play to win EVERY GAME.

[vtech9]

Originally Posted by __V__

I don't buy that spin stuff. I can't understand the logic behind it and I don't think that had much to do with it. Steve Young never had any trouble following Joe Montanna.

well Vinny, I can vouch for the fact that the spin does make a difference if you aren't used to it. All it really takes is practice to get used to it, but as a pro you are expected to make the adjustments on the fly.

[Vinny]

Major Applewhite didn't seem to have any problem coming in behind Simms. I just don't buy it. The spin of the ball makes no difference in my eyes. I used to toss a ball around a bit myself. You could be right...but I can't see it as a factor.

[J-Man]

Just a quick from former NCAA receiver (ok...Div I-AA)...it takes a little bit of adjustment to pickup another guy's passes, but it's mostly timing and velocity differences. I never thought spin was big deal and I had guys that were righty, lefty, and one guy was a sidearm chunker.

I can see dropping balls by not being position from a route timing prespective...but the bottom line is that if you get your hands on it you gotta haul it in.

I think AJ will be markedly imporved this year, it is very common for WRs to have big increases in skills and production during their sophomore NFL season.

[scourge]

While it may not matter, Jerry Rice also said that catching passes from Young took some getting used to after playing with Montana due to the difference in spin because of their opposite throwing hands. That was on ESPN in the early 90's at the start of the Young era.

[wags]

It's definitely easier to catch one of Carr's tight spirals, than one of Ryan Leaf's end over end quackers.