Yeah, that's a really minor injury. Some guys even play through it, IIRC. I suspect his decrease in production has more to do with his drops and targets. With the development of the WRs on that team, they no longer used him for deeper routes. Plus, he was dropping intermediate to short passes, so why even throw him the ball deep? His catch rate during the second half last year is a positive sign, which is why I see him as a possible value play this year. I play non-ppr, so I'm as happy with 5/60/1 as I am with 8/120/0.
I was just glancing over the top WR/TE/RB/H-Back target numbers from last year. Going down the list I wanted to try and find out who had the best target to catch ratios of the top targeted players.- Green Bay TE Jeremichael Finley had
77 targets thrown his way putting him in a four way tie with, SD TE Antonio Gates, ST WR Chris Givens, and Detroit TE Tony Schefter.
- Their were
56 players who were targeted more last year in the entire NFL of the combined WR + TE + RB + H-Back positions than Finley.
- Their were
14 TE's targeted more last year than Finley.
- Finley caught 53 of his 77 targets for a target to cath ratio of
68.8%
Of the 54 players who were target more often than Finley only seven had a higher target to catch ratio:
1. BAL RB Ray Rice was targeted 83 times catching catching 61 of those passes for a 73.5% target to catch ratio
2. MIN WR/RB/KR Percy Harvin was targted 85 times catching 62 for a target to catch ratio of 72.9%
3. NO RB D. Sproles had 94 targets catching 67 of them for a target to catch ratio of 71.3%
4. OAK TE Brandon Myers had 97 targets 75 catches for a Target To Catch (TTC) ratio of 77.3%
5. GB WR Randall Cobb had 104 targets 80 catches TTC ratio 76.9%
6. ATL TE Tony Gonzalez 113 targets 88 catches TTC ratio 77.9%
7. DAL TE Jason Witten 139 targets 103 catches TTC ratio 74.1%
I keep hearing how bad Finley is, how terrible he is catching the football, huh. I didn't notice anything bad when I saw him last year.
When you put things into perspective, put it into a broader context like seeing how he stacks up agaist other players who get the most targets in the NFL and see where his target to catch ratio measures well...
He stacks up solidly in the top ten of target to catch ratio.
The next time you hear how good or bad a guy is to do your own homework, take a step back and put how good/bad he is into the context of the rest of the league.
Also I imagine the Packers know Finley's value because they've decided to continue paying him like a top TE in the NFL.