Fuzzman55":2gjuqpiu said:
The only thing that concerns me about Finely is his hands--as in his actual production on the football field. The medical stuff will either be cleared by the doctors or it won't. And the Hawks aren't going to miss out on a buy-low deal. Pete and John just don't do that. If he's healthy and holds onto the ball, he's a weapon.
Bring Miller, Finely, Willson and McCoy to camp and let them battle it out. Sounds like a great group to pick from.
I've heard this misconception over and over --that Finley has a massive drop rate. So I actually looked for the stats. Finley had one of the LOWEST drop rates in the NFL for positions that catch the ball (RB/TE/WR) in 2013. He had 34 targets and dropped 1 ball. Another poster said this didn't matter, because he only had 34 targets. Sure that's a 2.9% drop rate, but in 2011 and 2012 he had 6% and 8% drop rates. Well, let's look at that high water mark of 8% drop rate for Finley in 2012 (8% of all targets). Here is an article on 2012, his "worst" year for dropping balls. This is comparing ALL TEs in 2012:
https://www.profootballfocus.com/blog/2 ... ight-ends/
It calculates drops differently, it calculates drops based on catchable balls. So their percentages are different. But let's look at Finley's drop rate in 2012 (his worst year for drops)
Finley: 12.86%
What other TEs were around this mark? Well, basically ALL of the receiving TEs in football, at least all of the best. These are 2012 numbers:
Jimmy Graham: 15%
Aaron hernandez: 16.89%
Brandon Pettigrew: 13.24%
Delenie Walker: 30%
Rob Gronk: 11.29%
In his worst year, Finley did have a lot of drops, but he is sitting right around Rob Gronk and Jimmy Graham, the two best pass catching TEs in all of football. And once again, this is his worst year in 2012. In 2013, he only dropped 1 pass for a 2.9% drop rate!
All in all, this whole drop thing for Finley is way overblown.