Honestly, I am not seeing many drops at all... in fact, I am seeing the most realistic amount of drops that I ever have.
Keep in mind, Madden scores "drops" anytime a receiver doesn't hang on to a ball, even in a contested situation - and contested situations are where the drops tend to occur. That is not actually considered a drop IRL in the NFL. IRL, a drop is scored when a receiver has a chance at a catchable ball, and fails to maintain control in an uncontested situation.
If you're seeing multiple amounts of these "drops", it's probably due to pass defense, as opposed to a receiver simply dropping the ball. Truth be told, that wouldn't bother me. That is one of the stats that I tend to ignore, as a whole... as long as they are relative to the pass D. If you really want to see these types of drops, play on AM.
Yes, you can bump up the catching slider to 55 or 60 if you'd like. That will increase the receiver's catch radius, and give him a bit more of an advantage against a DB in a contested situation.
As I said, I haven't had any issues with drops, though I didn't play last night; I haven't gotten to play with the new patch (1.25), that 'dropped' yesterday, as of yet.
I hope this helps - let me know if you have any questions.
Also, are you following the OP to a T, even with things like ballhawk being off? You are more than welcome to make any changes to the set as you see fit, but you may very well wind up with a different experience in doing so.