Just how prevalent are dropped interceptions in today's NFL?

Turnovers in the NFL are game-changing plays. As the league becomes ever more offense-focused, ending a drive without conceding points and stealing a possession for your offense becomes even more important.

Defenders not only make a name for themselves based on picking the ball off, but in a very real way create more value than players that struggle to catch the football when they have a chance to make a play.

Interceptions are a very small piece of the puzzle for defensive backs, and don’t tell the whole story, but they can be game-defining instances. Now what about the interceptions that should have been?

Defensive backs all too often have the ball hit their hands but are unable to bring it in and create that elusive turnover.

Last season some quarterbacks threw up to 15 passes that were dropped by defenders – dropped interceptions – to add to the ones that were actually brought in by defensive backs, providing a huge number of turnovers left on the table.

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Part of Josh Norman’s relative down tick in performance last season in Washington was getting beaten more often and more severely than he was the season before, but while he only intercepted one fewer pass than 2015, he dropped six interceptions this past season which could have resulted in a completely different year overall.

Norman had two more dropped interceptions than any other defender, and had he brought those in would have had nine picks to his name over the season, which would have led the NFL by two over the seven that the Chargers' Casey Heyward managed (Heyward of course had three drops too, so would have jumped up to 10 picks if he had perfect hands on the year).

Five players tied for the second-most dropped interceptions on the year, including three safeties. Chiefs S Ron Parker only intercepted one pass in 2016, but he had four go through his hands, which would have dramatically altered the perception of his season. Parker ended the year with a PFF grade of 81.8, good enough to rank 25th overall in the league, but one interception belies the plays he was regularly making in coverage and undervalues the production he had for the Chiefs in the secondary.

In the postseason, Packers CB Damarious Randall had opportunities to score some wins for the defense, dropping two interceptions to go along with the one he was able to hang on to. Randall was targeted 19 times, allowing 12 catches (63.2 percent) for 165 yards and two scores, but had the chance to create two more turnovers than he did.

Then-Texans CB A.J. Bouye was near perfect in the postseason, picking off two passes and allowing just 55 yards on 15 targets for a passer rating of only 5.6, but he also dropped an interception which would have made those numbers even more ridiculous.

Robert Alford also had a dropped interception, and it may have been the most costly of the entire NFL season, allowing a pass through his hands thrown by Tom Brady in the Super Bowl that ultimately became that Julian Edelman catch en route to the New England comeback win.