Over the course of the next few weeks, I will be dropping a variety of articles going over some of my favorite targets in dynasty if you have a team that is in the mix to take down a championship this year: first up, Jamison Crowder.
These will not be the obvious dynasty players like Christian McCaffery or Patrick Mahomes that everyone knows are the best in the game. Instead, I will be focusing on actual moves I have made in my leagues, with actual trades that can happen in your league. None of those unrealistic garbage trades you hear about on Twitter or podcasts will show up here. None of the high-priced superstar players will appear here, instead, I’m going to hit you with low-cost players you can actually acquire to push your team over the top this season.
Today, I start with New York Jets wide receiver Jamison Crowder’s underrated dynasty value. Crowder was the 26th highest scoring PPR WR last season and finished ahead of players like Calvin Ridley, Terry McLaurin, Deebo Samuel, DK Metcalf, and Christian Kirk to name a few.
How does Jamison Crowder help now?
Crowder became the 26th highest scoring PPR WR last season despite playing three games with Luke Falk as the Jets quarterback in which they scored a total of 23 points while Sam Darnold was out with injury, mono-related or otherwise. In the 13 games he played with Darnold, Crowder averaged just over 14 PPR points per game which would have also placed him 26th in PPR points per game at WR of anyone that played at least 10 games. That would have put him ahead of players like Courtland Sutton, A.J. Brown, Odell Beckham, and more.
This season in free agency, the Jets brought in former first-round bust Breshad Perriman, who was elevated to relevancy through the arm of Jameis Winston and the scheme of Bruce Arians. Perriman was brought in to replace Robby Anderson who by all accounts is a much better NFL WR than Perriman.
In the 2020 NFL Draft, the Jets selected Denzel Mims from Baylor in the second round. There is a pretty long and recent history of Baylor WRs being a bust at the NFL level but I do like Mims as a prospect. He tore up the NFL Combine while also being one of the standouts at the Senior Bowl shortly before. The last two WRs to standout at the Senior Bowl were Cooper Kupp and Deebo Samuel. There are still enough red flags on the rookie, especially with him not declaring until his senior season, to reel in expectations for this year.
Another reason to like Crowder’s dynasty value this year is that he is the only known quantity at the position for the Jets. Who do you think is going to be the main target for Darnold in 2020? Is it going to be a couple of players that will have very limited time catching passes from him in practice/minicamp and possibly limited preseason games, or is it going to be his trusted target that saw 8+ targets in seven of his 13 games played with Darnold last year?
Trade Considerations
So now let’s talk about a trade I personally made to get Crowder on one of my “win now” teams:
- Beer gave up Brown, John BUF WR; Crowder, Jamison NYJ WR
- Devine gave up 2020 Draft pick 2.02; 2021 third-round draft pick
In this league, my team is going to compete for a title, and after looking over the competition, I gave myself an excellent chance at being a top-three team at the worst this season. I needed some depth pieces to solidify the roster for the 2020 season, and to also deal with injuries and byes.
I was not looking to give up a first-round pick or other premium assets to win now. Rookie fever is as prevalent as I have ever seen this season, so while I certainly could have a nice young player on my team, I flipped the 2.02 and a presumed late 2021 third lottery ticket for two older/unsexy players I expect to produce for me this year.
It was also conducive that the team that owned Crowder/Brown was looking to get younger and was not in the running to compete for the title at the time of the trade. Trades that work for everyone are the type of trades I pursue.
This is exactly the type of move you should be willing to make if you can evaluate your team as one that can actually compete for a title this season, as you are taking advantage of the marketplace and resulting in starting lineup/depth pieces for unproven rookies — it is the hottest rookie pick market I have ever seen.
Conclusion
The long-term prospects for Crowder after this year are murkier than his production this season. The Jets have an out in his contract to cut him and save $10 million with only a cap hit of $1 million. Additionally, I expect the Jets to get rid of Adam Gase at some point, which would give Crowder no allegiances to whoever could replace Gase. If Crowder has the season I expect him to, he should have little trouble getting a near full-time slot role somewhere in the league anyway, if not actually staying on the Jets after a good season.
I’ll have a few more players over the next few weeks to go target on the cheap, so go get Crowder now and stay tuned for more.
Brit Devine is a fantasy contributor at Pro Football Network. Follow him on Twitter @brit_devine as well as @PFN365 and @PFNDynasty for all the latest fantasy news.