The Redskins Are Close

I do think that Campbell's deep ball accuracy is quite overrated, and that's fair game to criticize him over.

JC's first pass as a pro was a deep ball that hit Brandon Lloyd right in the hands.....and he dropped it. Doesn't seem like JC had too many opportunities after that. I agree with 12thMan, maybe he'll get better the more it's part of the gameplan. I doubt he practices a lot of plays that are not gonna be called. He does seem a little off.

I'll offer another possible anti-Campbell argument. Not one that I necessarily agree with, but since we're going to debate the QB position anyway, somebody's got to make the argument against (and SCSkinsfan can't be here all the time).

He's been victimized by drops throughout his career. Just victimized. But, what if what we perceive as being dropped passes are actually plays that Campbell's timing was off on and the end game was a dropped pass.

Specifically, (and not that this was Campbell's fault) the Devin Thomas drop in the end zone occured mostly because (in my opinion) the Rams won the play up to that point. They took away the first two options on the play (Portis and either Cooley/ARE, tough to tell exactly), and got pressure on the quarterback. While I think Thomas could have been quicker to flash in the hole in the coverage, Campbell's throw was low because it had to be low.

So Thomas gets blame for dropping a ball that hit him in the hands, and cost the team a TD. But while we say, "that's another dropped pass that's killing our quarterback" the drop itself was due in part to being a complete last-chance option on the play. In this case, it's not the quarterback being completely victimized, it's just a defensive win on third down.

So while that play was hardly Campbell's fault, the consistently high dropped pass totals is probably partially attributable to the quarterback. In the same way that interceptions are rarely 100% the fault of the QB, dropped passes may be less than 100% the fault of the receiver.

JC's first pass as a pro was a deep ball that hit Brandon Lloyd right in the hands.....and he dropped it. Doesn't seem like JC had too many opportunities after that. I agree with 12thMan, maybe he'll get better the more it's part of the gameplan. I doubt he practices a lot of plays that are not gonna be called. He does seem a little off.The other thing is that defenses in the NFL today are notoriously conservative. You think there's a reason no one ever goes deep against our defense? It's not because we have an elite secondary, it's because we'll give them the short stuff but take away the long stuff.

Conseqently, going deep for the sake of going deep is usually a horrible offensive strategy. The teams that can push the ball downfield can do so because they can put safeties in a bind with complex down field routes. If you have Larry Fitzgerald and Steve Breaston, you can specifically choose to attack a safety who you deem to be not a great coverage player by trying to get him to bite on a shorter route. In fact, this is exactly what the Cards did to Landry last year, and the result was Fitzgerald vs. Doughty 1-on-1.

If you don't have those guys though, you have to be able to pick your spots. We have the ability to get downfield passes if we can catch the other team in a blitz or something, but when you only have 3-4 oppertunities a game to actually get a play downfield, a lot can go wrong on those plays to give you zero deep ball production.

The short versions of the prior three paragraphs is that we just aren't a great deep ball team, and most of our really big plays in the passing game come on screens.

I was wondering about the drops. It does seem like his receivers drop a lot of his throws. I think that is what excites me about Kelly the most, because he doesn't seem to drop any thrown his way.

I'll offer another possible anti-Campbell argument. Not one that I necessarily agree with, but since we're going to debate the QB position anyway, somebody's got to make the argument against (and SCSkinsfan can't be here all the time).

He's been victimized by drops throughout his career. Just victimized. But, what if what we perceive as being dropped passes are actually plays that Campbell's timing was off on and the end game was a dropped pass.

Specifically, (and not that this was Campbell's fault) the Devin Thomas drop in the end zone occured mostly because (in my opinion) the Rams won the play up to that point. They took away the first two options on the play (Portis and either Cooley/ARE, tough to tell exactly), and got pressure on the quarterback. While I think Thomas could have been quicker to flash in the hole in the coverage, Campbell's throw was low because it had to be low.

So Thomas gets blame for dropping a ball that hit him in the hands, and cost the team a TD. But while we say, "that's another dropped pass that's killing our quarterback" the drop itself was due in part to being a complete last-chance option on the play. In this case, it's not the quarterback being completely victimized, it's just a defensive win on third down.

So while that play was hardly Campbell's fault, the consistently high dropped pass totals is probably partially attributable to the quarterback. In the same way that interceptions are rarely 100% the fault of the QB, dropped passes may be less than 100% the fault of the receiver.

Good receivers catch the ball whether it is a perfect throw or not. If its within your reach you should make the catch. If it is in your hands you should make the catch. No matter the touch on the ball or the velocity. That's why the players get game checks. That's what they are payed to do. So if the throw is out of reach fine. But if not they need to make the catch. If not they need to find another job. Emphasis on the words "dropped passes". Case closed.

Good receivers catch the ball whether it is a perfect throw or not. If its within you reach you shoudl make the catch. If it is in your hands you should make the catch. No matter the touch on the ball or the velocity. That's why the players get game checks. Tha'ts what they are payed to do. So if the throw is out of reach fine. But if not they need to make the catch. If not they need to find another job. Case closed.Well, yeah. We also don't exactly have a plethora of good receivers. And like I've said, what Campbell has been able to do in spite of having more than one or two NFL quality receivers is pretty remarkable.

I'm just suggesting that, while bad players will drop more passes than good players, it's probably simplistic to think that a drop is 100% the receivers' fault and no one else.

But, I think you and I are on the same side of this issue. While we might have an issue with Campbell and dropped passes, the truth is the players he's been playing with just haven't been very good.

I'll offer another possible anti-Campbell argument. Not one that I necessarily agree with, but since we're going to debate the QB position anyway, somebody's got to make the argument against (and SCSkinsfan can't be here all the time).

He's been victimized by drops throughout his career. Just victimized. But, what if what we perceive as being dropped passes are actually plays that Campbell's timing was off on and the end game was a dropped pass.

Specifically, (and not that this was Campbell's fault) the Devin Thomas drop in the end zone occured mostly because (in my opinion) the Rams won the play up to that point. They took away the first two options on the play (Portis and either Cooley/ARE, tough to tell exactly), and got pressure on the quarterback. While I think Thomas could have been quicker to flash in the hole in the coverage, Campbell's throw was low because it had to be low.

So Thomas gets blame for dropping a ball that hit him in the hands, and cost the team a TD. But while we say, "that's another dropped pass that's killing our quarterback" the drop itself was due in part to being a complete last-chance option on the play. In this case, it's not the quarterback being completely victimized, it's just a defensive win on third down.

So while that play was hardly Campbell's fault, the consistently high dropped pass totals is probably partially attributable to the quarterback. In the same way that interceptions are rarely 100% the fault of the QB, dropped passes may be less than 100% the fault of the receiver.

I can agree with that. In the case of Thomas, it was catchable, but difficult. To take this in a different direction, JC threw it in the split second opportunity he had. If he didn't attempt the throw wouldn't that be perceived as being too cautious? I mostly agree with the thinking that if a receiver gets his hands on the ball, he should catch it. Of course some passes are harder to catch than others but most of the drops ( They're only considered drops if the receiver gets his hands on it) were catchable.

I can agree with that. In the case of Thomas, it was catchable, but difficult. To take this in a different direction, JC threw it in the split second opportunity he had. If he didn't attempt the throw wouldn't that be perceived as being too cautious? I mostly agree with the thinking that if a receiver gets his hands on the ball, he should catch it. Of course some passes are harder to catch than others but most of the drops ( They're only considered drops if the receiver gets his hands on it) were catchable.Probably. It's hard to say anymore. Clearly though, it was worth the shot. The only risk was that it bounces off of his body and gets intercepted...which actually almost happened. But that's exactly the kind of risk that you have to be willing to take.

Fans who suggest he should throw into tight coverage are just being naive. But it'd be a different issue if he refused to throw those low (or mid)-risk, high-reward passes because things might go wrong.

I think all drops are catchable passes, but I guess my bigger point is that perhaps just because a pass is "catchable" doesn't mean it necessarily going to be caught. If that was true, you could say that any WR who ever dropped a pass lacks focus and shouldn't play in this league. But then we'd have to break out the 3 TE offense.

Braylon Edwards led the NFL in drops last year by a hefty margin, but now with Derek Anderson temporarily out of the picture, he's actually having a really good start for an offense that is otherwise terrible. Brady Quinn hasn't had any success throwing to anyone else though, but I think that's because of the Robert Royal curse ;)

Good receivers catch the ball whether it is a perfect throw or not. If its within your reach you should make the catch. If it is in your hands you should make the catch. No matter the touch on the ball or the velocity. That's why the players get game checks. That's what they are payed to do. So if the throw is out of reach fine. But if not they need to make the catch. If not they need to find another job. Emphasis on the words "dropped passes". Case closed.

Agreed. A drop is a drop. No need to over analyze it. Campbell can't throw the ball and catch it for the receiver. I've seen Campbell, contrary to belief by some, place countless balls right in the receivers mitts only to see it hit the ground and chalked up as incomplete. How many times last year and the year before have we seen comments posted here on Warpath, if so and so had "caught that ball" or held onto that ball...

Cooley is about the only sure handed weapon we have right now.