NY Jets Fantasy Football: Michael Carter is worth rostering

Michael Carter takes over the NY Jets backfield

Carter thrives on his agility and quick burst. This is also shown by the 17 missed tackles he's forced so far. Carter leads the Jets in that category by a long shot with Johnson following in a distant second place with only five evaded tackles.

Carter has not been heavily involved in the passing game thus far. In every game except Week 1, he has received three targets. Johnson, on the other hand, is getting more involved in the passing game.

In Week 3, for example, Johnson had a target share of 15.2 percent. In Carter's favor as a pass catcher, however, is that he produces 15.0 yards after catch per game — significantly more than any other Jets running back.

Also interesting is a stat that Josh Hermsmeyer of FiveThirtyEight developed: RACR (Receiving Air Yard Conversion Ratio). That measures how many receiving yards a player creates for every air yard thrown at him. It is one of the stickiest receiving efficiency metrics.

Carter has a RACR of 16.00. Johnson, on the other hand, has a RACR of only 0.68 while Coleman has a RACR of -1.70. This RACR puts Michael Carter in the top-12 in the NFL. Christian McCaffrey, for instance, has a RACR of 13.58.

Does Michael Carter have fantasy relevance?

With these numbers, Carter also becomes quite fantasy-relevant. He's scored 8.8 fantasy points per game in PPR formats so far. In Week 2, Carter even landed among the NFL's top 25 running backs.

The next two games — at the New England Patriots and against the Cincinnati Bengals — are also perfect for Carter's stats to continue to build.

In deeper leagues, Carter should therefore definitely be a waiver target. On Yahoo Sports, Carter is rostered in just 53 percent of leagues. So strike while you can.

I would keep my hands off Johson, despite his pretty decent start to the season. The tendencies are clearly pointing downwards. The same goes for Coleman, who doesn't seem to have really arrived in New York yet.

As for Carter, he's worth a flier at this stage of the season.