One of the reasons for the Detroit Lions early success in 2019 has been the sure-handed receivers. In fact, the Lions are doing the best job of any NFL team in holding onto catchable passes.
According to Stats.com, the Lions have just one dropped pass through the first five games. That’s tied with the New York Jets and Atlanta Falcons for the fewest in the league.
Those teams tied with the Lions have a combined one victory, so not dropping passes isn’t necessarily a predictive stat. But it’s still impressive for the Lions to have just one drop in the first four games.
Drops are not an official statistic and are subjective. I recalled more than one drop over the first four games, so I cross-checked (sidenote: Go Red Wings!) with Pro Football Focus for their drop statistics. PFF has charted four drops, which is still a very low total. They have six drops for the Falcons and Jets, as an example of the wide variance and subjectivity of dropped passes.
By way of comparison, PFF has former Lions TE Eric Ebron with four drops on his own for the Colts this year. This week’s Lions opponent, the Green Bay Packers, has four drops via Stats or six from PFF, depending on which service you choose.
