Jimmy Kempski gave us a chance to examine all of DeSean Jackson’s supposed drops from last season. He only counted eight drops, instead of the 12 that Pro Football Focus found. The thing is, though, that doesn’t really change mcuh. Instead of being the 55th-worst receiver, now DeSean’s only the 49th-worst. Big deal.
I’ve already written about DeSean’s drops before, and why they might or might not be a real problem going forward. Whatever side you come down on, it’s important not to dismiss PFF’s game charting or even their subjective grading system. The truth is that these kind of statistics can be quite valuable. No numbers are perfect, and we always have to add some skepticism. Just because they are always somewhat subjective, somewhat biased, and somewhat incomplete doesn’t mean we can’t learn something from them.
That was part of the point of last week’s post comparing DYAR and EPA for receivers. It wasn’t to say that DYAR is wrong or EPA is right, or certainly that stats are wrong and our eyes are right. The point is that every piece of information tells us a different story. If one number praises DeSean and another finds fault, that means something. Even if we can’t immediately figure out what that is exactly.
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ESPN’s John Clayton did his own handicapping of Kevin Kolb’s potential suitors. Interestingly enough, his thoughts are quite similar to my own predictions.
Clayton matches me with 2-1 for the Cardinals, but he thinks a lot less highly of the Seahawks.
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The most boring possible commentary on Asante Samuel, courtesy of the NFL’s Top 100 Players program. Juan Castillo says Asante plants his foot. That’s better than the rest of the meaningless superlatives thrown in there to fill three minutes, but still. I assume he’s doing some heavy-duty film study and he knows other tricks. Give me something more concrete about what makes Asante such an interception machine, please.