What You Need To Know:

• Despite a mess around him, Crowder caught a career-high 78 balls last year.
• He remained a short-area target, seeing only 7.6% of his targets fly 20+ yards downfield.
• The Jets’ pass-catching corps will look much different in 2020, but Crowder still projects as the clear target leader.

2019 in review

This Jets offense went full-on dumpster fire in 2019.

Adam Gase’s first year in charge produced finishes of:

32nd in yards

32nd in yards per play

31st in points

28th in plays

And yet Crowder — also in his debut season with the Jets — was one of the few bright spots. Appearing in all 16 games, he notched career highs with 122 targets and 78 catches en route to 833 yards and 6 scores.

In an offense desperate for stability, Crowder delivered. He caught 4+ balls in 10 games, spiking with outings of 8, 8 and 14 catches. He certainly benefited from TE Chris Herndon missing all but 1 game (injury, suspension). WR Quincy Enunwa barely saw the field, too.

So Crowder really excelled as the inside target; he played about 76% of his snaps from the slot. As usual, though, he wasn’t asked to stretch defenses vertically. Per Pro Football Focus, only 7.6% of Crowder’s targets came 20+ yards downfield — 3rd lowest among 111 WRs with 5+ deep targets.

2020 outlook

The Jets have moved on from Robby Anderson and Demaryius Thomas. But deep speed remains a strength here after adding rookie Denzel Mims and Breshad Perriman.

While Mims brings elite athleticism, he’s relatively raw coming from Baylor’s system. Perriman was a bona fide bust prior to a late-season hot streak with the Bucs in 2019 (and with several key players sidelined).

Both guys will play primarily outside, so Crowder again profiles as a heavy slot target.

With Herndon returning from a lost 2019, Crowder simply has some extra target competition on the short stuff. Herndon flashed as a 2018 rookie (39-502-4) and carries the po…