‘Talk to your receivers with the football’: The catchability of NFL quarterback passes shouldn’t go underappreciated

Sometimes, in sports, the things that you can’t see are the most important. With football, subtlety and finesse often play second fiddle to the raw athleticism and contact so obviously on display. High definition TV or not, we don’t see precision route running or a defensive end’s hand placement. But those underappreciated details are why success in the NFL is so much more than just being the strongest or fastest.

Or in a quarterback’s case, we see and hear the hype over arm strength, but less so the spin, placement and anticipation required to make a pass as catchable as possible. Yes, making the right throw at the right time is equally, if not more, important than a perfectly catchable ball. But crafting a catchable ball is more than just sticking the ball into the receiver’s chest every time. It’s giving the receiver a chance to make a play.

“Although you make a throw and get a completion, if you don’t anticipate it correctly, you’re leaving extra yards out on the field that he can get for you,” emphasized Chad Pennington, the NFL’s all-time leader in career completion percentage at the time of his retirement. “A lot of times when you see quarterbacks, although they complete the pass, they’re a half second late and they turn a 5-yard completion into a 5-yard completion, where it could’ve been a 10-yard completion with a 5-yard throw based on timing.”

In the NFL, there are throwers and there are passers. Despite the persistent ideal of the tall, strong-armed quarterback, there’s sufficient evidence that success is more than just being able to throw the ball through a brick wall.

“In all reality, velocity and distance come into play much less than accuracy, timing and anticipation,” Pennington said. “If you’re really having to step on a throw and create as much velocity as you can, you’re either late, throwing a Hail Mary or on the run and having to make a play at the end of the game where you have to force it to make a play.”

Catchability is a quality that gets lost in all the numbers and stats of quarterback play and is an aspect few appreciate until they are on the receiving end of a pass. “Playing quarterback, you don’t have the same perspective on the catchability of a pass,” said former NFL quarterback John Beck, now a quarterback coach with 3DQB. “But when you’re on the receiving end, you can appreciate it.”

Greg Camarillo, a former wide receiver and seven-year NFL veteran, highlighted the ingredients of a catchable ball. “Catchability is a reflection of the quarterback, and throwing the most catchable ball takes touch, timing, accuracy and a connection between receiver and quarterback,” he said. “It takes knowing what type of pass to throw each time.” Camarillo highlighted the importance of rapport between quarterback and receiver and how that connection takes repetition and practice.

Russell Gage, a receiver for the Atlanta Falcons, also underlined the importance of spin and spiral in creating a catchable ball. “You have to spin it. It’s good spin,” Gage said. “They always talked about Peyton Manning (late in his career), how he threw an ugly ball. Those wobbly ducks, those are more difficult balls to catch.”

That is, even under the best conditions, a wobbly, off-target ball is harder to catch. Sprinkle in the snow, driving rain or freezing temperatures of the NFL playoffs and catchability becomes even more important. “A good tight spiral is much easier to catch in bad weather conditions,” Beck said.

Asked about the quarterback that threw the most catchable ball, in any weather condition, neither Beck nor Camarillo hesitated in naming Pennington, the only player to win the Associated Press NFL Comeback Player of the Year award twice.

Pennington, now the co-executive director of the NFL Legends Foundation, embraced the responsibility of leadership and likened the quarterback position to being the CEO of a company. “Because I had the success and well-being of all my teammates in my hands, I felt it wasn’t my job to show how good I was,” he said. “My job was to make my teammates look good and help our team win. That’s how I tried to pass the football as well.”

Pennington cited three factors important for throwing a catchable ball. “I wanted to throw a tight spiral, because I’ve always felt that having a tight spiral helps your receivers catch the football better and works better in bad weather,” he said. “Secondly, understanding the type of velocity that you need, not every pass requires the same velocity. Certain passes that require more velocity than others and that’s important to understand. Also, understanding what each receiver can individually handle, what type of passes he can handle, what catches he can make. Not put them in positions to make catches that aren’t favorable to them.”

The final aspect, and perhaps the most important, was using his throws to send a message to his receivers. “Finally, it really boils down being to talk to your receivers with the football through your ball placement. Wherever you’re placing the ball you’re giving him some information about what is around him so he can focus on catching the ball first,” Pennington said.

Asked about the importance of a catchable ball, Pro Bowl receiver Julio Jones of the Falcons said, “You can really trust Matt (Ryan) and just go and get the ball,” Jones said. “He’s definitely going to stop you and slow you down from defenders. What I would say is, it’s his precision on putting the ball on your left side or right side, or low or high, to keep you away from defenders.”

On the topic of anticipation, Pennington explained how when trying to throw a catchable ball, being able to anticipate protects your receiver. “If you don’t anticipate, you’re leading him into danger and no matter how tough he is, he’s going to take hits that are, in my opinion, unnecessary.”

As a unit, the Falcons offense led the league with only eight dropped passes all season. In comparison, the Miami Dolphins were the worst, with a staggering 28 dropped passes. When asked about the stat, Ryan, the Falcons quarterback, credited his receivers. “Those guys are not scared to make plays when contested too,” he said. “I think that is key in this league. You have got to be able to bring the ball down through the contact. We certainly have a group of guys who are capable of doing that.”

In fact, Ryan shared the “downside “of throwing such a catchable ball. “I will never forget what Kyle Shanahan told me one time when I was throwing a bunch of picks, maybe in 2015. He said, ‘The problem is that you throw such a catchable ball that, even when you miss, those other guys are able to catch it too.’ I don’t know if that is a compliment or how to take that but I don’t know. I have just always thrown it the way I throw it. I feel like I throw with anticipation, so I try to put it in spots on time and in the right place. I just have those guys trust me that I am going to make good decisions for them.”

Of course, Jones and the other Falcons receivers believe that the onus lies on them to make the catch, good ball or not. “It’s our job to catch the ball. It’s not, ‘Oh, this ball came this way, or this ball came that way.’ Throw it, I’m going to catch it. I’m going to try my best to catch it,” Jones said.

Gage agreed, “As a receiver, we’re taught to haul it in. If it’s a duck and it hits your hands, you’re supposed to catch it.”

In that respect, catchability is a shared responsibility, requiring timing and anticipation between quarterback and receiver. And that’s developed in practice. “That’s (timing and anticipation) a big part,” Gage said. “That’s the stuff we do before practice in individual drills. He (Matt) trusts us to be in a certain spot at a certain time, so that’s a big part of it. I understand we practice all week for that ball to be here, or for that ball to be here.”

With their client list, one that includes Ryan, Drew Brees, Tom Brady, Beck and 3DQB do similar work in the offseason, focusing on mechanics and footwork. But the benefits can be subtle. “Using a golf analogy, the work that we would put in refining mechanics might shave a half stroke off of 18 holes,” Beck said. “In a football game, one or two throws a game will be affected.”

While catchability is an elusive quality to measure, three of the eight quarterbacks still playing in the NFL divisional playoffs (Ryan Tannehill, Jimmy Garoppolo, Kirk Cousins) rank within the top-5 of On Target Percentage (percentage of on-target throws per pass attempt, excluding spikes and throwaways), one measure of accuracy and catchability. Similarly, as mentioned by Pennington, catchability can also represent putting receivers into position to gain yards after the catch. Here again, three playoff quarterbacks exhibit high marks and rank within the top-5 of YAC/Completed Pass.

Source: Pro-Football-Reference.com

In an article by The Athletic’s Daniel Brown on 49ers receiver Deebo Samuel, we learn that Garoppolo’s impressive catchability stats are backed by his receiver’s respect. “Man, it’s great, honestly,’’ Samuel said. “You just know what kind of ball you’re going to get. You really get the ball the same way every time — on time, not too hard to catch, kind of like a perfect ball.”

According to Pennington, catchability remains underappreciated, in part due to how hard it is to watch a quarterback and understand the art of ball placement. But decision-making and catchability can help a quarterback’s performance.

“There are a lot of talented throwers in our league that could get more results if they became passers and understood catchability and timing and anticipation,” Pennington said.

— The Athletic’s Jason Butt contributed to this report.

(Photo: Michael Zagaris / San Francisco 49ers/Getty Images)