This is one of the reasons we suck in the redzone too. We have speed and separation receivers, they can make tough catches, but they're not winning jump balls or physical in air catches. Shouldn't be expected from Tyler or JSN, but it's the single biggest thing holding DK back from being a top 10 wr.

24 comments

  1. That’s cause DK (whose jersey I wear every Sunday and I love with all my heart) has alligator hands like Vernon Davis scared of Bam Bam coming to get him.

    Love the guy, but he catches with his body. And catches bodies too.

  2. This has been my criticism of DK for years. If a defender is within 4 yards of him, he should *dominate*. But he’s clearly bottom tier.

  4. It’s been an issue for years. DK should be a top 3 jump ball/contested catch receiver in the league, but his hands suck and he is terrible at timing jumps and high pointing the ball. Then Tyler and JSN (Tyler especially) just don’t have the size and/or athleticism for it.

  5. Is this percentage of catches that are contested or percentage of contested balls that are caught? Because those are very different things.

  6. We’re almost six full years into DK’s career at this point. We just need to accept the fact that being a contested catch receiver isn’t in the cards for him.

  7. We also don’t have any deep threats except for DK, who doesn’t fit the stereotypical mold. I think that’s another underrated missing piece that could help unlock the defense. Our WRs are:

    DK: Dominant deep threat WR who gets consistently double-teamed, bad at contested catches

    JSN: Slot/Short Route god, becoming our main chain mover/YAC guy

    Lock: Aging route runner whose contested catch ability is declining

    Bobo: Run-blocking, short-to-medium route runner

    Dareke: Barely plays

    Cody: Had a good game recently, doesn’t get enough PT.

    Most teams have a resident burner, even if they’re bad or have garbage hands, cause just their ability to take the top off the defense can make things a lot easier for moving the chains. I also think adding a deep threat WR would take the role off DK a bit and allow him to be more featured in the pass game.

  8. Does really surprise me, Lockett was the only guy who was good on contested catches but even that’s a few years ago now

  10. Bro i dont get DK, he should be Megatron 2.0, but bro just cant catch with his hands or attack the ball. Still a borderline elite wr, but imagine if he had good hands 🤦🏽‍♂️

  13. They’re not very good at contested catches. They’re elite at other things, but the last two years we basically just play ISO-ball in the redzone, abandoning the concepts that got us to the redzone once we get there. They were a top 5 redzone team a few years ago when they were basically just spamming mesh. Should go back to that. This is on coaching imo.

  14. DK doesn’t have the head or hands to match the rest of his physicality, Tyler is well past his prime, and JSN just isn’t a contested catch guy. On top of this, Geno is a QB looking to make higher percentage throws and limits the challenging throws to just certain types with mitigated downsides. It’s why his passing prowess falls off a cliff when the field shrinks and windows tighten up and why he frequently gets accused of holding onto the ball too long. All this puts much more emphasis on the need for the offense to be firing on all cylinders to be effective. Or for a Tyler or JSN to excel in scramble drills and find open holes, which is a great option to often have, but isn’t the most sustainable or reliable gameplan.

  16. This stat is on Geno, not DK. He repeatedly underthrows these passes to DK, which does not allow DKs speed, or jump/frame to win them. DK ends up playing defense to stop an interception rather being able to actually compete for the reception.

  17. Justin Jefferson: 6’ 1”, 195 lbs.
    Jaxon Smith-Njigba: 6’ 0”, 190 lbs.

    I think JSN has the size to develop into a better contested catch receiver. I’m reading many of these comments excusing JSN from the statistic based on his size, but as noted above, I don’t think size is an issue for him. Not knocking his ability. He’s developing into a solid WR. I just think we can expect more from him than I’m seeing these comments say.

  18. Before everyone gets their pitchforks out, contested catches aren’t necessarily a good thing. You don’t want to be high on this list, it means your receivers aren’t getting open and they have to make tough catches cause they aren’t getting seperation. Being at the bottom isn’t great per se, being somewhere in the middle is more ideal, AKA, the receivers mostly get open but when they can’t they can still make a play. Being at the bottom is the equivalant of being “middle of the road”. Being at the top of the list is equivalant to, your WR corps has some issues with their athletiscism or route running or how and when the quartback is getting the ball out.

  19. DK is a lot of talk and bling, but no production to back it up. Part of that is the QB, but the other part is catching those rare balls that get tossed to you.

  20. DK can’t even catch a ball that he’s contesting with his own numbers.

    He makes up for about 50 percent of my frustration from those drops with a clutch moment. And he’s cleaned up his bonehead aggression.

    Overall he’s mid and we don’t have any other contested catchers except probably Bobo (never gets a chance) and Barner or Fant.

  21. JSN and Lockett being 5’10” and DK having a bum shoulder (not that he was good at it when healthy) has really messed up our ability at contested catches. Noah Fant could help but he’s as soft as Charmin. It is an underrrated reason why Geno has so many INTs this season.

  23. This is one reason I think it’s fun to think about whether we would want to draft a WR3 or CB3 first. We definitely need another of each who can start out at 3rd and develop and the best ones usually go early

    If we went d-line in round 1 and round 2 was either receivers or corner which would you take?

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