Should The Philadelphia Eagles Extend Jordan Matthews?

1) A WR who can catch the football…just, you know, doesn’t

I figure I won’t get too far talking WRs in Philly without talking hands, so let’s address the elephant in the room. Jordan Matthews drops the football sometimes.

Per Sporting Charts, Matthews had 6 drops last season, tied for 8th-most in the league. That’s less than ideal. And as every Eagle fan knows, they seemed to come at the most inopportune times:

Now, both of these balls aren’t gimmes, but they are catches I expect an NFL-caliber WR to make. Both hit his hands, and he had plenty of time to adjust to and prepare for each. If I’m going to extend a player, I want him to make these grabs.

The fact of the matter is that Jordan Matthews is a body catcher. He would rather capture balls against his frame than snag them out of the air with his hands. Watch him adjust to this ball. He gets his hips turned, leaps, and even lifts his left leg so he can successfully capture this football in his gut.

A pure hands catch here would have been mighty impressive, but we’ve seen it done before. Not by any Eagle receivers, of course. Other teams’ guys.

However, we need to take a moment to put these plays and stats into context. While he ranked Top-10 in the NFL in total drops, Matthews caught a solid 62.4% of his targets over the season. For perspective, Broncos WR Demaryius Thomas caught 62.5% of his passes with 7 total drops. Super Bowl Champion WR Julian Edelman, the owner of arguably the greatest catch in Super Bowl history, reeled in 61.6% of his passes with 5 drops. Undeniable WR1s Odell Beckham Jr. and T.Y. Hilton both dropped 6 passes over the year, just like Matthews–for catch rates of 59.8% and 58.7%, respectively.

Now, there are many reasons that a WR wouldn’t catch an on-target ball, beyond just dropping it. Defensive play is the biggest reason, I’d say, which tells us something else about Matthews.