Packers wide receiver James Jones hasn’t dropped a ball yet this season.
That’s worthy of noting for a player who led the NFL in drop percentage over the last three seasons. Plenty of those drops caused frustration in Green Bay, but there’s not much frustration now with Jones’ 40 catches for 462 yards and eight touchdowns. To hear Jones tell it, the Packers wouldn’t be enjoying any of this year’s production without all of those drops in past seasons.
Jones says that when he was a free agent before last season, he heard from other teams that their doubts about his hands kept them from pursuing him seriously.
“They didn’t feel like I could catch a ball. They didn’t feel like my hands were good enough,” Jones said, via Tyler Dunne of the Milwuakee Journal-Sentinel. “When I play those teams, I have a little bone to pick with them.”
Jones wound up re-signing with the Packers for three years for a salary that’s allowed the team to address other needs, something that’s come in handy for them this season with Greg Jennings and Jordy Nelson battling injuries that have kept them out of various games. A few more catches in the past might have made that impossible and certainly would have made it more expensive, which makes those drops seem a little less painful in hindsight.