Can Jahan Dotson bounce back from a disappointing second season?

Breaking down Dotsons struggles last year and previewing his third year in the NFL

Commanders receiver Jahan Dotson is reaching a critical point in his NFL career. Dotson had a promising rookie season where he looked like one of the best receivers in his draft class until he got hurt and missed time, but he followed that up with a poor season last year. Dotson himself admits as much himself, saying earlier this offseason“I wasn't a fan of my season last year”. So what exactly went wrong for Dotson last season and is there hope for the former first-round pick to bounce back entering his third season in the league? Let’s take a closer look. 

Dotson’s priority has to be cutting out the drops. Dotson was attributed with five drops last season, which isn’t terrible as a stat on its own. Terry McLaurin also had five drops last season and lots of receivers had more drops than that over the course of a season. However, Dotson’s target share makes that number look worse. Dotson had 5 drops on 83 targets, which equates to a drop every 16.6 targets. McLaurin’s five drops came from 132 targets, nearly 50 more targets than Dotson had. That means McLaurin averaged a drop every 26.4 targets, which is a huge difference. 

It wasn’t just that Dotson dropped passes, that happens to every receiver from time to time. It was that Dotson often seemed to drop passes in critical situations. 

Here are two of Dotson’s five drops from last year. The first play of this clip shows a third and four situation against the Eagles early in the season. Dotson lines up as part of a stacked set in the slot and runs a shallow cross. He breaks open over the middle at the first down marker and quarterback Sam Howell places a good ball in front of him for him to run onto and convert into a first down, but Dotson drops the pass, likely taking his eye off the ball to look for incoming defenders to try and avoid after the catch. 

On the second play of the clip, Dotson runs a deep over route off play-action. The play works perfect with Dotson breaking open underneath McLaurin’s deep route on the far side of the field and Howell spots him well. Howell delivers a good pass out in front of Dotson for him to run onto and potentially take it all the way to the end zone for a touchdown after the catch, but again Dotson fails the most important part and drops the pass as it falls through his fingers. 

Obviously the drops can’t happen at that type of rate if Dotson wants to bounce back this season and fulfill the potential that saw him drafted in the first round. However, his hands were something that most considered a strength coming out of the draft and he has shown the ability to pull in tough catches, so I’m not sure there’s an underlying problem causing these drops other than just concentration lapses. 

On this play, for example, we see Dotson’s ability to adjust to bad passes and pull in catches that lots of other receivers would struggle to do. Dotson runs a corner route here as part of a corner-flat combination. Dotson puts together a solid route that convinces the deep safety he’s working inside and vertical, causing that safet to get completely turned around as Dotson breaks outside towards the sideline. That leaves Dotson wide open and Howell pulls the trigger on the throw, but the throw is low and behind Dotson this time. You would think this would be where Dotson might struggle to make the catch rather than the plays we saw previously where the ball was well placed out in front of him, but no. Dotson does a terrific job slowing himself down and adjusting to the path of the ball, going to ground to secure the pass that is low and behind him for a nice gain. 

So I think the drop issue is certainly one that needs to be addressed, but one that I don’t think there’s an underlying technical issue. He has good hands generally speaking, I think perhaps sometimes he takes his eye off the ball looking ahead to what he can do after the catch, which makes him lose concentration on ensuring he secures the catch first. 

The other major issue with Dotson’s game last season was playing against press coverage. Dotson is a smaller receiver, listed at 5-foot-11, 182 pounds. When he comes up against some of those bigger, longer, physical press corners, he can struggle to get clean releases off the line of scrimmage, leading to his route being delayed or even completely taken away. 

Here you can see two examples of him struggling to release against physical press coverage. On the first play of the clip, Dotson is isolated to the left of the formation and looks to run a slant. The Seahawks match him with a big, physical corner that immediately looks to jam him at the line of scrimmage. Dotson attempts a fake release outside at the line, but that just gives the corner an opportunity to jam him. The punch from the corner lands and delays Dotson significantly, making him late to get into his slant. He does eventually get inside but the corner sticks tight to him and is able to undercut the route to break up the pass. 

On the second play of the clip, Dotson aligns outside to the right against the Dolphins. He’s not really a primary option on this play and is just trying to run a vertical route to vacate space underneath and perhaps occupy a safety, but you can still see his struggles here. The corner plays physical at the line and jams Dotson, delaying his release. Dotson attempts to go wider to get into his route but the corner stays on him and jams him all the way to the sideline before letting him go and peeling off into his zone coverage underneath. 

There are two key traits that enable receivers to release successfully against physical press coverage, one is quickness and the other is hands. Dotson absolutely has the quickness that can cause just about any defender issues at the line of scrimmage.