Roy Williams’ Drops Should Come As No Surprise

First came some rumblings that he came to camp out of shape.  Then he has a rough game against the Giants.  Now he’s starting to get irritated about the questions about his hands.   The media descended on Williams earlier today and the exchange about his game on Monday became quite comical.

"Williams was asked to assess his “drops’’ Monday night.“I had a drop? I didn’t have a drop,” Williams said. “If you want to count it, you can. I think the DB made a great play to knock it out as soon as it got into my hands, so I didn’t drop the ball.”Williams was pressed on another ball he couldn’t reach against the Giants.“It went through my hands? The slant? Yeah, I’ve got to catch the ball, man,’’ Williams said. “I’ll catch it next time, Coach.”"

Ha ha.  If only Williams catching was as good as his sense of humor.  Wide receivers coach Daryl Drake didn’t find it quite that amusing, but Johnny Knox might be laughing all the way back into the starting lineup:

"“He’s not where he needs to be, and he knows that. He and I have talked about that — and the good thing is, you’ve got Johnny Knox, who’s fighting and working hard. And believe you me, Roy understands Johnny’s there. Johnny’s hungry, and Johnny wants his spot back. If things don’t start changing, then Johnny’s going to be in there. That’s straight from the horse’s mouth.’’"

ESPN North blogger Kevin Seifert really helps put the Roy Williams drop situation in perspective.  Check out some of his stats on Williams after the jump.

Williams is serial dropper.  ESPN looks at two stats:

"Case of ‘The Dropsies’Despite ranking third in targets among Cowboys pass-catchers over the past three seasons, Roy Williams struggled to produce in Dallas due to an inability to come down with the ball when targeted. Williams has dropped a higher percentage of passes than all other players with at least 200 targets since 2008 and has the third-lowest catch percentage over the same span."

To look at it another way,

"ESPN Stats & Information also calculates the reliability of a receiver by comparing his number of catches to his total targets. Reliability includes drops but also, to some extent, the ability of a receiver to make out-of-the-ordinary catches. Some receivers get more high-percentage opportunities than others, but over time I think this category provides a pretty accurate representation of the degree to which a receiver has proved a trustworthy target."

Unreliable Targets: Lowest Catch Percentage, Past 3 Seasons

So the Bears chose to push their leading wide receiver aside and hand the job to a wide receiver who can’t catch and is among the most unreliable in the league.  Talk about epic failure.  Somehow, ,Michael McCaskey must be behind this.