Packers wide receiver has 5 so far but doesn't see trend
By Tom Silverstein of the Journal Sentinel
Dec. 9, 2009
Green Bay — Packers wide receiver Greg Jennings said he does not have a drop problem.
He just happened to have one on Monday night.
"The slant, just dropped it, didn't go down with it," Jennings said Wednesday. "And the 'puma' (route), on the sideline, I couldn't even see it. Honest, I just dropped it, lost it in the lights. It kind of hit me at the last minute. It happens, it's part of the game, but you've still got to make plays."
The two drops were Jennings' first since the Tampa Bay game and gave him five for the season, equal to the number teammate and Packers leading receiver Donald Driver has this season. It might have been shocking for some to see Jennings drop a pair in front of a national television audience against the Baltimore Ravens, but to him it was not a warning sign.
He said there is no issue.
"No, no, I'm not concerned about that, not at all," Jennings said. "I'm nowhere close to being concerned it. Not sounding cocky about it, but drops are a part of the game. What happened to me on (Monday), the slant, totally me, totally like 100 percent, that is just uncalled for. I can't control the lights."
Overall, Jennings has not been as productive as he was a year ago when he led the Packers in all three top receiving categories with 80 receptions for 1,292 yards and nine touchdowns. This year, Jennings has 53 catches for 799 yards and three touchdowns, which puts him on pace to finish with 71/1,065/4.
There's no question that's a significant drop-off from last year.
The way he looks at it, defenses are paying more attention to him, and others on the team are bearing the fruit of the double-teams he and Driver receive. Perhaps the biggest difference between this year and last are the 34 catches tight end Jermichael Finley has.
"There's things that 'Drive' does that opens everything up for everybody else, there's things that I do that open it up, and what Jermichael does opens everything up just as much as everything else," Jennings said. "So what he's able to do, split out on a linebacker, on a safety, with his athletic ability, it's a mismatch every time."
One puzzling part of the offense is that Jennings rarely gets used in the slot, where a receiver has more freedom to beat a defender because he can't be bumped at the line of scrimmage and there's more open field to work with. Driver gets that assignment whenever he's on the field.
Jennings also doesn't get a lot of assignments as the lone receiver to one side in a three-receiver set. In most cases, that receiver gets a cornerback who is playing soft zone because he doesn't have safety help with all the attention being paid to the other side of the field.
Jennings said if the Packers weren't winning, he might be more vocal about wanting the ball more, but he said he is not going to disrupt a good thing. As it is, he and Driver have been targeted by quarterback Aaron Rodgers almost exactly the same number of times: Jennings, 89 times; Driver, 88 times.
"When we're playing the way we're playing, we're winning, you're going to get nothing but smiles," Jennings said. "Now, if it were reversed, then maybe. But I'm not trying to mess with anything."