Dropped Passes a Rare Blemish on Offensive Juggernaut

The Green Bay Packers rank No. 1 in the NFL in points, yards and other key categories but they've left "a lot of yards left out on the field" due to drops.

GREEN BAY, Wis. – The Green Bay Packers’ offense has been practically unstoppable through two games. Other than stopping itself periodically.

Green Bay leads the NFL in points (42.5 per game), total yards (505.0 per game), rushing yards (208.5 per game), yards per play (7.1), rushing yards per play (6.2) and time of possession (38:01 per game). It has committed zero turnovers and allowed one sack in going from mediocre to magnificent.

If there’s been a blemish, it’s been dropped passes. By our unofficial count, the Packers have seven on the season, with three by Marquez Valdes-Scantling and one each by Allen Lazard, Davante Adams, Aaron Jones and Jace Sternberger.

It’s not exactly a five-alarm problem but it will be worth monitoring in coming weeks.

According to Pro Football Focus, the Packers have six drops on the season. The drop rate on passes thrown by Aaron Rodgers is 8.1 percent, the seventh-highest among the 34 quarterbacks with 30-plus dropbacks.

“It’s not like anybody’s trying to drop a ball when they go out there,” coach Matt LaFleur said on Monday. “It just sometimes it happens fast and you don’t get your hands in the right place or whatever it may be, or you might take your eye off the ball a little too early trying to make an explosive play. We’ve got to make sure we ensure the catch and finish the catch.”

Unofficially as well as according to PFF, the Packers had four drops in Sunday’s rout of Detroit. Those were charged to Sternberger, Lazard, Valdes-Scantling and Jones.

“I think there was a lot of yards left out on the field from those drops,” LaFleur said after the game.

LaFleur said he charged his team with six. Tight end Robert Tonyan charged himself with a drop on a deep incompletion on the opening possession, though that appeared to have been ripped out by the Detroit defensive back, and Lazard and Valdes-Scantling couldn’t quite make tough grabs later in the game. Some of it might be the lack of preseason games and scrimmages against other teams. These two games were the only times the players have had to catch a pass with the knowledge that they’re about to be hit.

“We’re tough graders and expect a lot out of these guys, but I think you have to have a high standard to get to where you want to go,” LaFleur said on Monday. “But a couple of those were definitely concentration.”

Otherwise, the passing game has been clicking at a much higher rate than last season. Some of that, of course, is competition. The Week 1 opponent, Minnesota, lost its three top corners during the offseason. The Week 2 opponent, Detroit, had two of its top three corners sidelined by injury and the third, rookie Jeff Okudah, was making his NFL debut.

Still, Rodgers has been throwing in a rhythm not seen too often last season. According to PFF, Rodgers’ average time to throw last season was 2.74 seconds, and he got rid of the ball in faster than 2.50 seconds on 44.2 percent of his dropbacks. In the small sample size that is this season, Rodgers’ time to throw has been 2.39 seconds and the ball has come out in less than 2.50 seconds on 57.1 percent of his dropbacks. Rodgers was the sixth-slowest to pass last season; he’s the eighth-fastest this season.

“We have obviously more than just Davante and Aaron Jones,” Rodgers said after the game. “Other guys have made a lot of important contributions for our team, like Marcedes Lewis, who is so important for us and just so many things the point of attack, and then Bobby Tonyan with his route-running ability, he had a couple really nice plays today. Obviously, Allen and Marquez, their development has been great. We dropped obviously a few too many balls today, but at big times in the game, (we got) big plays from both Allen and Marquez.”