For the last few years, there hasn’t been a more underrated wide receiver in fantasy football than the New York Jets’ Jamison Crowder. In PPR and half-PPR scoring, Crowder has been a valuable asset as a slot receiver who gets peppered with targets.
Crowder missed games early in the season, but he rounded into form with an 8-catch, 84-yard performance in Week 8 (that’s a lot of 8s). What should we expect from him going forward?
Jamison Crowder has been a valuable asset in fantasy
When you look at Crowder’s WR35 finish from last year, it’s easy to sigh. However, he’s the perfect example of why we should all be switching our attention to fantasy points per game, not overall finishes.
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Injuries happen in football. Crowder missed five games last year. However, on a point-per-game basis, he was the WR18 on the season, finishing with 59 receptions, 699 yards, and 6 TDs. A top-20 WR is precisely what your roster needs — consistent weekly production as a WR2 or high-end flex play. I’ll take that every single time in the late rounds of drafts.
Mike White clearly liked him last week
Zach Wilson is currently out with an injury, throwing Mike White into the starting quarterback role.
White did wonderfully checking the ball down to the underneath receiver (or running back Michael Carter), which perfectly fits what Crowder does best.
He’s not going to burn you deep. His 11.8 yards per catch in 2020 was way down the list at 71st-best in the NFL. When you don’t see 140+ targets like the top-tier wide receivers in the game, you’re going to have a hard time being an elite fantasy performer with that low of a ypc average.
Still, we’re not talking about elite. We’re talking about good. Sometimes, good is good, and while the rest of the people in your fantasy league are obsessed with the next potential breakout player that can go through a metamorphosis and blossom into a WR1, they’ll ignore a productive, unflashy, reliable 28-year-old receiver on a bad team.
Crowder’s fantasy outlook
When you look at your weather app, it’s not always going to say 72 degrees and sunny. But you know what? 65 and partly overcast is still a solid day.
That’s what you get with Crowder — he’s fine. 95% of the time (arbitrary number), he’s not going to wow you, but he’s going to give you a consistent-floor player for your lineup that won’t give you a goose egg. He’s seen at least 6 targets in all four games that he’s played this year, and he’s had fewer than 4 targets in only one game since Week 4 of 2017.
That’ll do. That’ll do just fine.
This week, we get another Mike White game against a Colts defense that has limited fantasy production to opposing running backs. White should once again look to get the ball out of his hands early and often to Crowder on underneath routes, leading to yet another productive outing in scoring formats that reward receptions.