Bryce Underwood could have been better as a true freshman starting quarterback for Michigan football, but it turns out his wide receivers didn't do him any favors.
Outside of freshman Andrew Marsh, who put together one of the best freshman seasons in Michigan football history, the wide receiver room was disappointing. Donaven McCulley had some nice moments, but the only pass catcher who got drafted was tight end Marlin Klein.
At any rate, Underwood had plenty of ups and downs. He still completed 60 percent of his passes, though, and averaged 218 total yards per game with 17 total touchdowns. He certainly looked much better than Dante Moore did as a freshman for UCLA.
Things could have gone better and one reason for that was the poor play of Michigan's wide receivers.
Bryce Underwood's receivers let him down
According to Tom Fornelli of CBS Sports, Underwood's receivers had the second-highest drop rate in college football last season.
"It turns out that if you're looking for a wunderkind QB to buy stock in if they finally get teammates who can catch, it's not Arch Manning you should be looking at, but Michigan's Bryce Underwood," Fornelli wrote.
Adjusted for drops, Underwood's completion percentage would have been 5.5 percent higher. Certainly, you can't expect every pass to be caught. But Julian Sayin dealt with a drop rate that was just over one percent, so if the receivers were equal, Underwood would have been completing about 64 percent of his passes as an 18-year-old freshman.
Underwood is working with QB guru Jordan Palmer this summer, training alongside Joe Burrow. Despite a tough spring game, the arrow is pointing up. He's still a work in progress, but this drop statistic is another reminder that Underwood wasn't nearly as bad as people made him out to be.
And the good news is that with the additions of J.J. Buchanan, Salesi Moa, and Jamie Ffrench, the wide receivers should be much improved, solving one of the passing game's biggest problems.
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