After 8 games, Packers lead NFL in drops by huge margin

The NFL will play the rest of the Week 8 schedule on Sunday and Monday, but the Green Bay Packers currently hold a wide and possibly insurmountable lead for dropped passes as the midway point of the 2026 season approaches. According to Pro Football Focus, the Packers have dropped an NFL-high 23 pass

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The NFL will play the rest of the Week 8 schedule on Sunday and Monday, but the Green Bay Packers currently hold a wide and possibly insurmountable lead for dropped passes as the midway point of the 2026 season approaches.

According to Pro Football Focus, the Packers have dropped an NFL-high 23 passes through eight games. The next closest team is the Tennessee Titans with 13 drops.

The Packers have already dropped more of Jordan Love's passes in 2026 than during the entirety of the 2025 season (20 drops).

Matthew Golden was credited with two more drops during the Packers' 27-19 win over the Carolina Panthers on "Thursday Night Football." He had a drop on the offense's first drive and another drop in the end zone, although he redeemed himself with a touchdown

catch one play later. Per PFF, Golden has an NFL-high nine drops. The next closest player has five.

The Packers have thrown the ball at a high rate this season, increasing opportunities for drops. But even accounting for volume, Love leads the NFL in dropped pass percentage at 10.7. Last season, for instance, only 6.0 percent of Love's passes were dropped.

Golden, Tucker Kraft, Christian Watson and Josh Jacobs have all dropped potential touchdown passes from Love, including multiple drops in or near the end zone from Golden. Jacobs' drop in Detroit might have cost the Packers the game.

Packers offense has been a bit of a rollercoaster pic.twitter.com/V0dK4MN2fx
— PFF (@PFF) October 31, 2026

Drops are a subjective measure, and PFF might lean towards the conservative side. The site doesn't generally count a drop if the ball is affected by a defensive player, so any ball that is knocked out of the hands of a player by a coverage play isn't a drop. Golden and Watson have multiple plays this season that weren't counted as drops but instead tallied among failed contested catch opportunities.

But most stat trackers have the Packers at the top of the drop leaderboard and with a similar number. Pro Football Reference has the Packers with exactly 23 drops, although the 23 are spread out a little differently. Every site reviewed by Packers Wire has Golden as the league leader in drops by a comfortable margin.

Can the Packers start catching the ball more consistently during the second half of the 2026 season, or will drops be a defining feature of this talented but often frustrating football team?