Attyla the Hawk":2jt3iepo said:Back to Johnson though. We had a discussion recently about the virtues of pursuing Vincent Jackson. A move I am very much against. Jackson is a player who is frankly not terrificly skilled at the business of catching footballs. He sports a very low catch to target ratio. I compared him to Luke Willson of 2014. Which should be damning as I think we all considered his pass catching to be an area of concern even at the TE position. The fact he fared better than Jackson who is supposed to be a WR should raise everyone's Houshmandzadeh sense. Even when playing with Rivers in his prime, his catch rates were in the mid 50s.
And yet he put up 6 years of 1000 yard seasons with usually around 7-8 TDs. With a 6'5 receiver you can put the ball in places where either he can catch it or nobody can catch it - they're high passes to the outside that are difficult to get to, but if you get to them they go for big gains. Jackson was targetted 142 times last year, made 70 catches - but crucially, only 4 were drops, just 2.8%. That's a lower drop rate than every Seattle receiver in 2014 except Richardson (0 drops), and jammed right in between the drop rates of Jordy Nelson and Antonio Brown.
He's had some years where he's been above average and several below (as most receivers do), but his catch rate has very little to do with his ability to catch. Calvin Johnson has one of the lowest catch rates in the league among receivers with more than 50 receptions year in year out. Who would argue he's not among the best in the league?