Jamison Crowder Fantasy Value Could Be on the Rise With Impressive Preseason Usage

Limited to only nine games by injuries last year while playing in an anemic Washington Redskins' offense, Jamison Crowder fell off the map in fantasy football.

His previous two seasons were promising, scoring seven touchdowns in 2016 and notching 104 targets in 2017, but in 2018 he finished with only 29 receptions, 388 yards and two touchdowns.

Signing with the New York Jets hasn't moved him to a top offense by any stretch, but the situation is still likely an upgrade from playing in Washington — especially with how committed the Jets seem to be to getting Crowder involved in the offense.

Twenty four first-team snaps isn't a huge sample, but when we're looking at something like playing time, which tends to be much more consistent than production, we can already start to draw some conclusions. So far, it seems like the Jets are going to spend a ton of time with three wideouts on the field, and Crowder seemingly has the lead for the slot role.

The slot is exactly where Crowder tends to do his best work, so that's a great sign for the 26-year-old.

Crowder also tends to be used more in the short areas of the field, with an average target depth of 9.1 yards in 2018, compared to 15.7 for top Jets wideout Robby Anderson. Those kind of short targets tend to carry a higher floor for fantasy scoring, especially in PPR leagues.

Anderson could prove to be a boom-or-bust player on the outside, but short targets in the slot for Crowder will be higher-percentage throws that make him a safer fantasy play. The nature of these targets could also help to insulate Crowder's fantasy value if Sam Darnold struggles in his sophomore season.

Crowder is going all but undrafted right now, with an average draft position (ADP) of WR65, and seeing high volume as the Jets' starting slot receiver could lead to a ton of value at that cost in 2019 fantasy football drafts.

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Jason Schandl is not a FanDuel employee. In addition to providing DFS gameplay advice, Jason Schandl also participates in DFS contests on FanDuel using his personal account, username Jaymun. While the strategies and player selections recommended in his articles are his personal views, he may deploy different strategies and player selections when entering contests with his personal account. The views expressed in their articles are the author's alone and do not necessarily reflect the views of FanDuel.