Philadelphia Eagles: 3 Statistics to improve on in 2017
By Jeremy Klump
3. Dropped passes
If you watched any Philadelphia Eagles game last season, you noticed that the Eagles struggled to catch the ball. At times, it was pitiful to watch NFL players drop routine catches and show a lack of focus. It was also hard to look at a rookie quarterback put the ball on the money and see it be blatantly dropped.
That is why dropped passes are a huge statistic the Eagles need to improve on in 2017. Drops are not an actual stat that the NFL keeps, but SportingCharts.com tries their best to log the drops. However, in 2016, as Jimmy Kempski of Philly Voice pointed out, they did a pretty poor job of it. Luckily, Kempski who is well respected in the Philly media, logged their drops last season.
| Player | Drops | Catches | Drop % of catchable passes |
| Dorial Green-Beckham | 12 | 36 | 25% |
| Jordan Matthews | 8 | 73 | 9.9% |
| Nelson Agholor | 6 | 36 | 14.3% |
| Trey Burton | 4 | 37 | 9.8% |
| Darren Sproles | 4 | 52 | 7.1% |
| Kenjon Barner | 2 | 5 | 28.6% |
| Zach Ertz | 2 | 78 | 2.5% |
| Byron Marshall | 1 | 3 | 25% |
| Wendell Smallwood | 1 | 6 | 14.3% |
| Paul Turner | 1 | 9 | 10% |
| Ryan Mathews | 1 | 13 | 7.1% |
| Brent Celek | 1 | 14 | 6.7% |
(via Jimmy Kempski of Philly Voice)
43 dropped passes isn’t going to get the job done. And for one of these receivers, it cost him his job.
Via the Eagles Twitter account on Friday, the Eagles have waived Green-Beckham, who led the Eagles in drops last season. The pass catchers on the Eagles need to help Wentz this season and make sure they do what they are paid to do: catch the ball, or they could be on their way out as well.