06-08-2020, 02:10 PM
I kind of let this one run a while because I have been down this road before with the group here. Auden Tate's catch percentage is severely misleading because his rate of catchable balls was horrible. Catch rate is targets divided by catches but does not take into account the quality of the throw. Now people try to claim "if he had more separation he'd get more catchable balls", but apparently that didn't apply to Mike Williams who got less separation and got far more catchable balls thrown to him. If you actually go back to the tape he was constantly being underthrown or the ball was being put in places that almost no one outside of maybe AJ Green could get them.
He had some throws against the Ravens that were comically bad, and yet he still came down with them. Ball placement matters and that is partially related to types of routes they had Tate running last year. His entire route tree essentially amounted to post, out, fade. In reality, a fade is a low percentage throw, especially by Dalton as for years he has preferred to put the ball to the sideline side forcing receivers to pull it in bounds over risking putting it in play and interceptable. His catch rate on out routes had to been one of the lowest in the league because the balls were simply not thrown well. On the flipside his catch rate on posts were good because he could shield the defender with his fram and make plays, even on poorly thrown balls. His contested catch rate was 20th in the league so if you got him a catchable ball in coverage he was prety good at bringing it in.
I'm not saying Tate is all world, but people who key in on singular stats and disregard the whole picture...or the tape paint the guy in a pretty bad light. I have long held he could be a high end 2 in this league, but considering on this team he is probably a 3/4 he is a great assett to this team.
He had some throws against the Ravens that were comically bad, and yet he still came down with them. Ball placement matters and that is partially related to types of routes they had Tate running last year. His entire route tree essentially amounted to post, out, fade. In reality, a fade is a low percentage throw, especially by Dalton as for years he has preferred to put the ball to the sideline side forcing receivers to pull it in bounds over risking putting it in play and interceptable. His catch rate on out routes had to been one of the lowest in the league because the balls were simply not thrown well. On the flipside his catch rate on posts were good because he could shield the defender with his fram and make plays, even on poorly thrown balls. His contested catch rate was 20th in the league so if you got him a catchable ball in coverage he was prety good at bringing it in.
I'm not saying Tate is all world, but people who key in on singular stats and disregard the whole picture...or the tape paint the guy in a pretty bad light. I have long held he could be a high end 2 in this league, but considering on this team he is probably a 3/4 he is a great assett to this team.
