Better performance would occur only if the receivers are actually catching the ball. Maybe he is putting it where they have a chance, but not a good chance, and the DB has little to no chance. He could actually be attempting more difficult (riskier) passes than just throwing it up for grabs.
Defense choking, ST choking, Finley dropping a ball here and there (his infamous complaint "I don't do backshoulder" was a late game one as I recall) can account for a lot of his failures.
I guess it all depends on how you define risk. Is it risk of an interception, or risk of an incompletion?