During the offseason, early and then pretty late, the New York Jets released wide receivers Brandon Marshal and Eric Decker. That left Quincy Enunwa as their No. 1 wide receiver, after a solid mini-breakout last year (58 catches for 857 yards, four touchdowns). But Enunwa is now out for the season with a neck injury, which leaves Robby Anderson as the next man up.
Who’s Robby Anderson, you say? An undrafted rookie out of Temple in 2016, he earned a roster spot with a strong preseason. He had 19 catches through Week 9, but then after the Jets’ Week 10 bye his role increased. In Bryce Petty’s first start, Week 11 against the Rams in a game that set the game of football back, Anderson had three receptions (on six targets) for 69 yards. Over Petty’s other three starts last year, Anderson had 14 catches (29 targets) for 240 yards and two touchdowns, including three receptions of 40-plus yards. That rapport with Petty is pretty inexplicable, but it’s also noteworthy since Josh McCown and Christian Hackenberg appear to be ahead of Petty on the depth chart right now.
But somebody has to catch passes for a team that will be bad, and trailing in every game they play. There are others in the mix at wide receiver, but it’s easy to see Anderson leading the team in targets. A better catch rate than last season would be nice (53.8 percent), but beggars can’t be choosers when it comes to drafting a Jets’ pass catcher right now.
I like Anderson as a volume based WR4 in 12 and 14-team leagues. Fantasy Pros.com’s ADP consensus has him at WR64, and Fantasy Football Calculator doesn’t even have him in their top 70 wide receivers based on ADP. For essentially a free final draft pick, there’s at least bye week fill-in appeal for Anderson. Targeting him is not good strategy, but as names are crossed off your cheat sheet he’ll look ok on the back end of a roster.
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