Well now that Chris Chambers is gone and we've played our first game without him, it's clear that Ted Ginn is going to get his fair share of chances. This past game, Ginn was targeted on 7 of 36 passes (only 36 because one was a spike play). That's nearly 1 in every 5 passes was thrown his way. Compare that to the previous games where Ginn was targeted just 8 times in 6 games. And though he only had 3 catches, there were at least 2 plays in which the blame falls completely on Cleo Lemon and his inaccuracy. Like many have said, Ginn could have had 2 touchdowns if a good quarterback was throwing him the ball. Hagan was targeted 5 times by Lemon, though all but one were in the 4th quarter and all of his catches were in the fourth. Marty Booker led the way with 8 targets, while the tight ends were a total of 7 times for 7 receptions(4 for Justin Peelle and 3 for David Martin).
Total Targets
Here's how the targeting breaks down through 7 games:
Chris Chambers: 66 targets (27%)
Marty Booker: 49 targets (20%)
Ronnie Brown: 46 targets (19%)
David Martin: 20 targets (8%)
Justin Peelle: 16 targets (7%)
Ted Ginn: 15 targets (6%)
Derek Hagan: 14 targets (6%)
Jesse Chatman: 12 targets (5%)
Patrick Cobbs: 2 targets (1%)
Reagan Mauia: 2 targets (1%)
Lemon's Targets
Since Lemon is still the team's starter, I suppose we should look at who he tends to target the most:
Marty Booker: 22 targets (21%)
Chris Chambers: 22 targets (21%)
Ronnie Brown: 22 targets (21%)
Ted Ginn: 12 targets (11%)
David Martin: 9 targets (8%)
Derek Hagan: 8 targets (8%)
Justin Peelle: 8 targets (8%)
Patrick Cobbs: 2 targets (2%)
Jesse Chatman: 1 target (1%)
Receiver Success
And as always, here are the catch percentages of each Dolphins' receiver:
Jesse Chatman: 92%
Ronnie Brown: 85%
David Martin: 75%
Derek Hagan: 71%
Justin Peelle: 69%
Patrick Cobbs: 50%
Reagan Mauia: 50%
Marty Booker: 47%
Ted Ginn: 40%
It sure is nice to see how well Hagan is playing considering many people wrongly criticized his hands after a poor Senior Bowl. He also had some drops in camp last year, but he seems to be much better now. He also seems to like Cleo Lemon a lot, as his catch percentage is 88% since Cleo took over for Trent. Of course, it's probably just a coincidence, as we've seen how innaccurate Lemon has been throwing to Chambers and Ginn.
Speaking of Chambers, starting Sunday we will be tracking his catch percentage as a member of the Chargers. You may be wondering why, so I'll tell you. A lot of people, Dolphin fans included, got on his case for his poor catch perentage last season. So I'm hoping for big things from Chris in San Diego so that he can show all the "haters" that he is a legitimate #1 receiver. Don't get me wrong, I'm still in favor of the trade that was made. But I'll also always still be a Chris Chambers fan.
Thoughts below...