Philadelphia Eagles top wide receiver Jordan Matthews is ranked 12th in the NFL with 39 receptions, and he leads the Eagles offense with 398 receiving yards.
Matthews can have better statistics if he was able to hang on to passes from quarterback Sam Bradford.
According to Pro Football Focus, Matthews has six dropped passes on the season, which is the third most in football. The drops have been a collective problem for the skill position players of the Eagles offense. Philadelphia leads the league with 25 dropped passes.
"I'm No. 1 on the list of guys that have been the problem with it," Matthews said. "So I take that responsibility upon myself to get that fixed. That's my job. I take full blame for that."
In Sunday night's 27-16 loss to the Carolina Panthers, Matthews dropped two passes. The first of which resulted in an interception by Panthers safety Colin Jones.
"The coaches and Sam (Bradford, quarterback) trust me to make catches and that's my job," Matthews said after the loss to the Panthers. "I haven't come up with the football enough and it's disappointing. All I can do is continue working and trusting myself. I'm going to get it."
On a drive that started as a result of a Malcolm Jenkins interception of Cam Newton, Matthews had a chance to catch a touchdown pass. He was unable to secure a spot in the end zone, and the Eagles were forced to settle for a field goal on that drive.
"That's a catch I gotta make," Matthews said. "Sam trusts me there. He threw it where I could catch it and I couldn't keep both feet in. We needed to capitalize there. The defense set us up. The defense played lights out again."
Matthews had a stellar year as a rookie in 2014, catching 67 passes for 872 yards with eight touchdowns. He ranked 17th in the NFL in terms of dropped passes.
Matthews was ranked fifth in the NFL in terms of receiving yards through the first two weeks of season, but his numbers have been on the decline in recent weeks. He only had three catches for 14 yards during Sunday night's loss to Carolina.
The second-year receiver out of Vanderbilt University is known for having a great work ethic. Matthews arrives early to the NovaCare Complex every day to work on catching passes from the JUGS machine.
The Eagles are currently in the middle of their bye week, but Matthews certainly isn't relaxing.
"It would benefit me to catch passes and keep working at this," Matthews said when asked if he was going to take a little break from football during the bye week. "I'm not going to shy away from working hard."
There's no doubt that Matthews has the right mindset to get things back on track in the second half of the season, just in time for the Eagles to make a push into the postseason.
Michael Malia is a contributing intern for Eagledelphia. Follow him on Facebook (Michael Malia) or Twitter @Michael_Malia.
