Rice's scouting report appeared to be exactly wrong in the first weeks of the season. He averaged But against the Saints in Week 4, he dropped the only pass thrown to him. The Niners, point favorites, lost to the lowly Saints and fell to they also lost their season opener to the Vikings. Rice was injured against the Saints; he separated his shoulder returning a kickoff. At the time, he was expected to miss two-to-four weeks. Some observers felt that the Niners would be able to return to their short-passing routes without the bomb-happy rookie in the lineup.
Even assistant coach Paul Hackett felt that Montana was throwing too many long passes to his new receiver. If number one isn't open, and number two isn't open, let's hit number three, instead of thinking Jerry, Jerry, Jerry all the time.
Rice didn't miss any games. The next week, he caught three passes, including a yard touchdown, in a win over the Falcons. But Rice soon began to slump, dropping passes in losses to the Bears and Lions. He was often wide open when balls bounced off his hands. Walsh re-inserted Solomon as the starter, though Rice still played more snaps than the veteran. Rice's confidence began to wane.
Rice dropped two passes and fumbled against the Chiefs in a game that the Niners won The team coasted to a victory, but the rookie had what Walsh called "a personal crisis" on the sidelines. Rice was learning, but the Niners were falling off the playoff chase. There was plenty of blame to go around. The aging defense wasn't mounting a pass rush.
Halfback Wendell Tyler, who had beaten the fumbling habit in , was back to his ball-dropping ways. Montana was at the center of unsubstantiated drug rumors. But the easiest guy to blame was the kid who cost the team several draft picks, the newcomer who replaced a productive veteran and dropped half the balls thrown to him.
Rice's rookie year was just two decades ago, but it's hard to picture the main characters in the drama as they were then. You just can't take those bronze busts off the wall and make them flesh-and-blood again.
Montana was a champion, and an All-Pro, but he was mortal, capable of bad games and slumps, vulnerable to newspaper speculation and talk-radio skepticism. Clark was just 28 and among the best receivers in the league. Roger Craig made his breakthrough that season, rushing and receiving for 1, yards each; for the first half of the season, though, he was the second option behind Tyler in the running game.
Walsh was acknowledged as a top coach, but he still had to face the heat in press conferences after a loss, and his reputation as the NFL's great offensive innovator was not yet established.
In fact, the term "West Coast Offense" wasn't used in San Francisco in , though writers alluded to Walsh's short-passing system many times. The 49ers roster was filled with names like Fred Dean and Russ Francis.
When they faced the Saints, the Niners defense had to stop an aging Earl Campbell. And then there was the year-old Rice. He spent so many years as the league's distinguished veteran that it's shocking to imagine him as a jittery rookie, one false move from the bench.
It seems unfathomable that he was once Santonio Holmes or Chad Jackson. But in a San Francisco Chronicle article from late October of , Tom FitzGerald compared Rice, unfavorably, to the other rookie wideouts from the class of Rice had 18 catches for yards at that point. Eddie Brown of the Bengals had 29 catches for yards.
Rice only topped Al Toon, the first receiver taken in the draft, who had just eight catches at that point. But while Rice was on the front burner, Solomon stewed. Solomon was a playoff hero in , catching two postseason touchdown passes after hauling in 40 regular season passes.
Just 10 months later, he was relegated to mop-up duty. He was a nominal starter, but Walsh would put Rice in the lineup after the first snap, using Solomon as a third wideout for the rest of the game. Solomon caught 10 passes in the Niners' first two games, then 10 more in their next nine.
Columnists tittered that Rice's drop total was approaching Solomon's reception total. There even seemed to be some dissension among the Niners coaches when Walsh stood before the media in that November press conference and defended his rookie wide receiver.
Writer Charles Bricker quoted Hackett one day after the conference in the San Jose Mercury News : ''We thought initially that we could find the right balance between the use of Freddie and Jerry," he said. Now, the pendulum has swung the other way. Hackett's statement contradicted Walsh's roundabout suggestion that Solomon was washed up. It would be foolish if we weren't throwing him a lot of passes if he were open and catching them and running At some point, you don't play quite as well.
You don't have quite the stamina you once had. You don't have quite the quickness you once had. We all have to face that. So, you have to take a stand squad-wise on those kinds of things. Walsh saw the future; its name was Jerry Rice. But he also had the present to worry about, and his team was struggling to stay in playoff contention. Now, they just toss a few balls to him in practice and go in and look at films.
The same article quoted Walsh with a different theory: Rice was running for glory without securing the ball. In another interview, Walsh suggested that Rice was hearing footsteps. And then there were the gloves. Rice was a bare-handed receiver in college, but Clark and Solomon wore gloves. Rice's gloves became the most scrutinized clothing items in the Bay Area for weeks, as Rice hemmed and hawed about keeping them.
Finally, after the Chiefs game, the gloves came off. My hands got me here. The bare hands didn't help immediately. Just days after his head coach defended him, Rice had his worst game as a pro. In front of 57, fans in a Monday night game at Candlestick, Rice dropped three more passes. The Niners won, , thanks in part to a yard touchdown catch by Solomon. But Walsh didn't change his stance. Rice remained the starter. He took extra practice reps after the Seahawks game.
Teammates stood by him. Against the Redskins the next week, Rice took a reverse handoff and ran 77 yards for a touchdown. Unfortunately, the play was negated by a holding penalty. Our reasoning for presenting offensive logos. Logos were compiled by the amazing SportsLogos. All rights reserved. More bio, uniform, draft, salary info. G See the glossary for more information. Rec Yds Minimum 1. Minimum receptions to qualify as career leader. TD Career Player Split Finder.
Career Player Game Finder. Passing Plays Receiving Plays Rushing Plays Regular Season. Lower-case means part-time starter. Minimum rushes to qualify as career leader. Minimum touches to qualify as career leader. Available for player games since Jerry Rice had an NFL-record 76 career yard receiving games.
There were numbers for Jones because he played for a Top 25 program. There were no numbers for Green. The chart compares Jones' numbers for targets, receptions and dropped passes against numbers for leading receivers in the NFC West this past season.
The chart shows percentage of targets resulting in dropped passes, without knowing the quality of those targets. I've sorted the chart by most receptions per dropped pass. Jones had more drops than any receiver on the list and the second-highest drop percentage, but his catch-to-drop ratio wasn't out of line.
Skip to main content Skip to navigation. Choose Blog Jerry Rice, Julio Jones and dropped passes. Odell Beckham Jr. Seattle Seahawks' defense has improved, but matchup with Aaron Rodgers likely looms.
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