Drop a pass? Colts WR Reggie Wayne said you'd better get amnesia

ANDERSON — In the blink of an eye, Griff Whalen made his coach eat his words.

Asked earlier this week how the second-year receiver out of Stanford was fitting into the Indianapolis Colts’ new offense, coach Chuck Pagano didn’t hesitate.
“I don’t know if he ever drops a pass,” he said.

A day or so later, Whalen ran a crossing route against light coverage and ... flat dropped a pass.

“That’s gonna happen,” shrugged Reggie Wayne, the second-leading receiver in club history and a six-time Pro Bowl selection. “You just hope it doesn’t happen too often or at the wrong time.”

Sunday, Wayne had a pass squirt through his hands. A few plays later, he uncharacteristically suffered another drop. He took out his frustration on the football, walking over to it and kicking it.

“Receivers who drop passes are just like a defensive back who gets beat,” Wayne said. “You’ve got to have amnesia. You’re gonna drop one every once in a while.”

“It’s almost always a lack of concentration,” Whalen said.

Wayne’s routine includes several minutes with the Jugs machine after each practice. He has the person running the Jugs alternate the direction of the passes: high, low, to the left, to the right.

Darrius Heyward-Bey, who brought a reputation of dropping too many passes with him to the Colts from Oakland, also spends time snatching footballs spit out by the Jugs.

Yet drops crop up. No different than an offensive lineman flinching on a false start or a defensive lineman being penalized for encroachment.

Quarterback Andrew Luck insisted he’s not the type to get in a receiver’s face when one of his passes hits the turf.

“From Pop Warner to high school, college, the NFL, it’s part of the game,” he said, adding a receiver has had occasion to gripe when one of his passes sails high or into the ground.

“If I did (berate someone), I’d be disappointed with myself.”

Charting dropped passes is a subjective venture. Was it catchable? Was it tipped? Did the defensive back jar the ball loose?

Two premium websites, for instance, don’t agree on the number of passes dropped by Colts receivers in 2012. Pro Football Focus charged them with a league-high 50. Stats Pass had them with 36, tied for seventh-most.

“You can’t worry about how the league or someone else charts them,” said Wayne. “If it’s a bang-bang play, they can’t really tell if a guy got his hand in the way.

“But I know in my own mind. I don’t need someone telling me.”

According to Stats Pass, Wayne dropped nine passes last season. That was a team high, but he was targeted 195 times, a drop rate of 4.6 percent. The league average was 8.0 percent.

By contrast, Donnie Avery dropped 5.6 percent of the passes thrown to him (7-of-124) and Hilton 6.7 (6-of-90).

Despite reports to the contrary, Heyward-Bey is in the midst of a solid camp. He is attempting to put distance between himself and the reputation he acquired in Oakland as a receiver with too many drops, and gain the trust of Luck.

“When he throws it up there, you got to come down with the ball,” Heyward-Bey said. “That’s what a quarterback looks for and that’s what I’m trying to do.”

Heyward-Bey dealt with revolving coaches, coordinators and quarterbacks during his four years with the Raiders. And with his consistency. From 2009-12, Stats Pass had him dropping 6.7 percent of the passes thrown to him (20-of-300). But after a shaky rookie season (6-of-40, 15 percent), it’s 5.4 (14-of-260).
Wayne has dropped 4.1 percent of his opportunities (27-of-651) during that same stretch. Wes Welker’s rate over the past four seasons is 5.4 percent (34-of-633).

Wayne wagged his head back and forth.

“I don’t feel like there’s a ball I can’t catch if it touches my hands,” he said. “Some guys will say, ‘It’s out of my reach’ or ‘It’s off my fingertips.’

“Hey, if it touches these phalanges, I’ve got to bring it in some kind of way. Andrew will be like, ‘My bad. Bad ball.’ I’m like, ‘No, I’ve got to come up with that.’ You know the ones you are capable of catching.’’


(indystar.com)