Jamison Crowder working to build vital chemistry with Sam Darnold
By Luke Easterling
One of the New York Jets’ biggest offseason additions, slot receiver Jamison Crowder is working hard to build chemistry with his new quarterback, Sam Darnold.
While the Jets already had one of the league’s more underrated receiver tandems in Robby Anderson and Quincy Enunwa, finding a blue-chip slot target was clearly a priority heading into this offseason.
They found exactly that in Crowder, a free agent who spent his first few seasons making big plays for the Washington Redskins.
Now that Crowder has a new team and a new offensive scheme to digest, he’s focused on building an important connection with Darnold (via team reporter Olivia Landis):
At the end of the day, a lot of times it’s just going out there — even though for me it’s a new system and for him [Sam Darnold] it’s a new system — and playing football. We play ball, college and pro, whatever it may be we play a lot of ball. So just going out there and playing and trying to get that chemistry and kind of getting a feel for what he likes and telling him what I like, I think that’s the thing as far as building chemistry. But still, once you get the play and stuff down and go out there, it’s still just playing football at the end of the day.
Crowder established himself as one of the league’s most reliable slot targets over his four years in Washington, racking up 221 receptions for 2,628 yards and 14 touchdowns. A fourth-round pick in the 2015 NFL draft out of Duke, Crowder signed a three-year, $28.5 million deal with the Jets back in March.
With Darnold expected to take a big step forward in his development this season, adding a smooth, explosive pass-catcher like Crowder to an already talented wide receiver corps should only accelerate his progress.