Jamison Crowder traded to New Orleans Saints
By: Jeremy Trottier
The New Orleans Saints have had one of the more interesting offseasons in 2021, mainly because of the outgoing pieces more so than the incoming ones. With the loss of Emmanuel Sanders in free agency and now Michael Thomas to injury for 12-14 weeks from now, they are in a real predicament at the WR spot. In this article, I will be going over the three reasons as to why the Saints should look to trade for New York Jets receiver Jamison Crowder.
Contract Price
One of the biggest limiters for the Saints right now would be cap space, despite having roughly 11 million right now to spend, they have many holes to fill both in depth and in starting even with that amount of money. Jamison Crowder only has one year left on his deal, which would allow the Saints to either work on an extension if he proves useful or let him walk after this season with no dead cap repercussion.
Looking specifically at his contract details, Crowder’s cap hit for 2021 will be a little over six million dollars, which fits well within the Saints budget. This would allow them to have no issue trading for him, especially if they were to offload extra cap space with players in the trade, potentially along the lines of Andrus Peat to help the Jets offensive interior.
WR1 Potential
Jamison Crowder has played WR1 before, there is no doubt about that. He has also played WR2 before, which would allow him to play alongside Michael Thomas when he returns. This type of versatility from a receiver is highly valued, as they know that at any time they can be moved behind another receiver, and can accept that.
Crowder has been really effective with his targets, having a 66.3% catch rating and 11.6 yards per reception average shows he has the quality to produce at a high level if given the targets to do so. The two seasons he had over 100 targets he had 750+ yards each season, a 64% catch rating, and more than 35 first downs each season. Despite not being a big-name receiver in the league, his productivity and efficiency per reception is very good.
Scheme Fit
Crowder would really be an interesting fit on the Saints because he fits their old scheme with many short to intermediate passes across the middle. With that said, the development of a new quarterback in NOLA may change that, Jameis Winston would likely look more to the deep ball than Drew Brees has in recent years, and Taysom Hill would focus more on play-action and reverses.
Crowder fits each of these well, as his speed allows him to carry well into the deeper portions of the field and make big plays happen with little to no issue. This speed also would translate well to end-around and reverses as he could get to the sideline quickly and open up a lane alongside it. Being able to play in an offense tailored by Sean Payton, one of the more prominent offensive minded coaches recently would definitely be something to benefit Crowder as he would be used in every way possible to improve his stat totals and improve the team.
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