Drop No. 8 Awarded
October 17th, 2016
Moves into a tie for second place
The NFL does NOT provide official stats on drops. Unreliable stat-geek outfits do, but Joe doesn’t trust their data.
So Joe entered 2016 determined to study Bucs film and chronicle every drop and possible drop in order to avoid confusion.
Week 5 vs. Carolina – 1 drop, 0 “maybes”
This one was crystal clear. It was 3rd-and-10 on the opening drive with 6:38 remaining in the first quarter. America’s Quarterback, Jameis Winston, fired left to Mike Evans, who had turned and was facing Jameis as the ball hits him in both hands. Drop! The defender was a yard off Evans as he stood 1 1/2 yards from a first down.
2016 Drops Tally:
Vincent Jackson – 4 drops
Charles Sims – 2 drops
Mike Evans – 2 drops
Possible Drops Tally
Cameron Brate – 2 possibles
Mike Evans – 1 possible
Week 4 vs. Denver – 1 drop, two “maybes”
Joe’s film study awards another drop to Vincent Jackson. With 6:29 remaining in the third quarter, Jameis Winston offers a play-action fake to Charles Sims and fires right about 17 yards to V-Jax running from left to right. The ball is well thrown and V-Jax is pretty well covered. Not an easy catch, but the ball is where it’s supposed to be and V-Jax gets two hands on it.
Two possible drops awarded to Cameron Brate, with 3:40 remaining in the third quarter and 3:56 left in the game. Film is inconclusive on both. Excellent throw by Jameis on the first one, which was dropped in over Brate’s shoulder, but Joe could not determine if a defender got his hand in for a breakup. The fourth-quarter throw was a little high and behind Brate, but not much.
WEEK 3 vs. Los Angeles – 2 drops plus 1 “bonus screwup”
Extraordinarily costly drops in this game, led by Charles Sims’ juggle with 2:32 remaining in the first half. Sims couldn’t squeeze the short throw out of the backfield to the left, and then he got drilled, leading to a Mark Barron interception.
Vincent Jackson gets the next one, his third of the year. V-Jax was alone at the 10 yard line with :54 remaining the game. He was square to the ball as the high throw hit both his hands. V-Jax didn’t even have to jump.
**Bonehead bonus play goes to tight end Brandon Myers, who forgot where he was on a short second-half throw to the right sideline. He floated out of bounds and caught the ball.
WEEK 2 vs. Arizona; 3 drops plus 1 “maybe.”
Charles Sims gets the first drop, with 5:15 remaining in the third quarter. Yes, the short pass to Sims was tipped a the line of scrimmage, but Sims got two paws on the ball and was looking right at it. He couldn’t squeeze it and re-tipped, which led to an interception.
Vincent Jackson returns for his second drop of the season with 2:12 remaining in the third quarterback. V-Jax went up for a 20-yard throw over the middle at the 4 yard line. He got two hands on it, squeezed it and didn’t hold on.
Mike Evans is issued a drop for his two hands on a well-thrown ball from America’s Quarterback, Jameis Winston, with 7:55 remaining in the fourth quarter. No question here after the film is studied. Evans is hit in stride on the right flank. The defender did not break up that pass.
**Possible drop goes to Evans with 2:16 remaining in the third quarter. It’s a slant pass. Video, including the All-22 coach’s film, is inconclusive.
WEEK 1 vs. Falcons – Joe assigned the first drop of the year to Vincent Jackson, and only one drop for the game.
It came with 59 seconds remaining in the first half. The Bucs were on the Falcons’ 41-yard line, and America’s Quarterback, Jameis Winston, dropped back to pass with no rush. Jackson, on the right flank, broke inside and then took his route outside to the sideline. Jameis put the ball on the money at the 25-yard line. The ball entered Jackson’s gut and he couldn’t squeeze it.
After the play, the TV cameras caught V-Jax giving sort of an “it’s-on-me” wave back toward the huddle.
Bad drop, for sure.
It surely wasn’t a great game for V-Jax. Receivers coach/offensive coordinator Todd Monken said V-Jax was at fault on the miscommunication that led to Jameis’ interception.
October 17th, 2016 at 9:39 am
Are you going to keep tabs on bad throws too? You better get a calculator. People expect every ball to be caught but a 60% completion ratio is ok from the qb?
October 17th, 2016 at 9:53 am
^^^What he said. Jamies is starting to look a bit Freemanish. He’s a #1 pick he needs to start playing like it. Can’t blame the receivers or the coach on the throws.
October 17th, 2016 at 9:53 am
Joe, does the NFL keep official stats on pass breakups? If so, that might determine their opinion at least of the Brate maybe drop.
October 17th, 2016 at 9:57 am
Relax people…Winston is only 22. Your typical NFL QB is still in college at his age.
October 17th, 2016 at 10:25 am
buc15 – you are familiar with bad habits? Well, Jameis has a lot of them. So did Freeman and many other busts at QB. Bad habits don’t magically go away. When this guy gets a clean pocket things fall apart for him mentally. And physically. Check out his footwork and throwing style in general. Half the time he throws in a wind up and doesn’t set his feet properly. That typically doesn’t get fixed too easily.
He’s capable of a great game(s) every so often, but he’s never going to be elite or close to it. I think Joe should change his name to “America’s Game Manager QB”. Because that’s his ceiling now.
October 17th, 2016 at 10:25 am
I still don’t see the point in this series.
October 17th, 2016 at 10:33 am
what DB55 said! Dumb stat track.
Point is very simple. First, Joe finds it interesting. Second, there was Lots of disagreement last year on how many drops Mike Evans actually had. And there was a bit of controversy about V-Jax in previous years. Joe got thoroughly sick of that and decided to keep a thorough log this season. Joe is scrutinizing the film anyway, so why not. –Joe
October 17th, 2016 at 10:39 am
Finally figured out how the ‘Let’s Beat Up the Bucs’ game works. Bucs play Rams … Bucs self-destruct … Rams win … Let’s Beat Up the Bucs. Bucs play Panthers… Panthers self-destruct … Bucs win … Let’s Beat Up the Bucs. This is a fun game.
Regardless of how we got here, Bucs are 2-3 with a decent chance to go 3-3 next Sunday. They have gobs of weaknesses, but may be getting quite a few players back shortly to help eliminate some of those. Patience. Let’s watch it play out and see what happens.
October 17th, 2016 at 10:41 am
The point of it is that it give Joe something to do instead of posting more content about how god awful the defense is.
Jameis overthrow stats would take too long to write up. Joe doesn’t have the budget for it.
October 17th, 2016 at 12:01 pm
We will not win consistently unless Jameis cleans up some of those missed throws. The team is not good enough to bail him out when he has an off day. At least not on any kind of regular basis.
October 17th, 2016 at 12:31 pm
Timely/ clutch drops are what upsets me the most. Many last year were on 3rd down.
October 17th, 2016 at 3:24 pm
Nothing compared to last year.
Not worried.
October 17th, 2016 at 5:00 pm
Louis – All habits can be changed with lots of work & practice. I think we should work on getting him a few more weapons to throw at plus a little more experience before we jump to the Freeman conclusion. Brett Farve had some bad habits & he turned out just fine in my book.
October 17th, 2016 at 10:40 pm
buc15 – Brett Favre’s had 3 favorite habits
1. Drinking
2. Women
3. Flinging the ball into traffic
The thing with Favre was he was accurate enough of the time to prove the doubters wrong. And he gave up the boozing enough to stay sober on game day. You can’t compare Winston to Favre reasonably. They don’t have one thing in common – greatness. When Winston consistently stops playing like Freeman/Dilfer/Shaun King/Chris Simms/Add your own inconsistent QB/ then I’ll believe his bad habits have stopped.
Most QBs (and I mean 99% of them) never break their bad habits. That’s why there are so few elite QBs.
About the women though…..lol