Should I not be putting too much weight into what I see on the field in terms of where the players are? I've had many wide open passes either dropped or "broken up" when the defender is a good 5-10 yards away.

It helps my enjoyment level when I think of the visuals as a more rough estimation of what's actually happening on the field.

Just wondering if that's how it should be, or if the drops need to be re-weighted. Maybe some nuance for higher catching % when they are wide open?

Some things on the field are exact positioning, but some of the checks that the engine makes don't always match up with the display. We don't have a way of displaying overthrow or underthrown balls, or bad spirals, or bad placement, or tips at the line of scrimmage, bad leads, etc. so it all kind of gets approximated in the catch chances. Sometimes we attribute it to the WR as a drop, and sometimes we attribute it to the defender as a PD if we deem they're close enough to jump or dive and get a hand on it.

And yes, the catch chances are better when wide open, but there are dozens of calculations that go into it that could cause it to still be unsuccessful.