Georgia football had a lot of problems during the 2024 season, but the biggest issue by far was their wide receivers. As every UGA fan knows by now, Georgia's receivers led the nation in drops last season with 36. Carson Beck did have his struggles during the season as well, but there isn't much any quarterback can do if their receivers aren't catching the ball.
While common sense will tell you that Beck doesn't deserve any of the blame for these drops, data from when Gunner Stockton took over after he was injured tells a different story.
Georgia's WRs no longer had issues dropping the ball with Stockton
As mentioned, 36 drops is far too many for any team that expects to compete for championships. This number comes out to close to three drops per game which is just unheard of at Georgia.
But the second Stockton took over for an injured Beck in the SEC Championship game, everything changed. Stockton was Georgia's quarterback for six quarters last season, and in those six quarters UGA's wide receivers only had one drop. That is far below the average Georgia's wide receivers were at while Beck was under center.
This more than likely is just a coincidence because it's hard to put any blame on a quarterback for wide receivers dropping the ball, but maybe there is something to this stat. Maybe this speaks to a better connnection between Stockton and Georgia's wide receivers than what Beck had with the group. Maybe the way Stockton throws the ball gives Georgia's receivers a better chance to catch the ball, even if Beck put the ball right on target.
It will be interesting to track drops this season for Georgia to see if this trend continues throughout an entire season. But another thing on Georgia's side is their revamped wide receiver room, which features elite transfers in Zachariah Branch and Noah Thomas.
So hopefully the combination of those two additions with Stockton will be enough so dropping the ball is a problem of the past.