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Why the 2018 season will be pivotal to Jamison Crowder’s future with the Redskins

By Jacob Camenker

LONDON, ENGLAND - OCTOBER 30: Jamison Crowder #80 of the Washington Redskins celebrates after scoring a touchdown during the NFL International Series game against the Cincinnati Bengals at Wembley Stadium on October 30, 2016 in London, England. (Photo by Alan Crowhurst/Getty Images)
LONDON, ENGLAND - OCTOBER 30: Jamison Crowder #80 of the Washington Redskins celebrates after scoring a touchdown during the NFL International Series game against the Cincinnati Bengals at Wembley Stadium on October 30, 2016 in London, England. (Photo by Alan Crowhurst/Getty Images) /
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LONDON, ENGLAND – OCTOBER 30: Jamison Crowder #80 of the Washington Redskins celebrates after scoring a touchdown during the NFL International Series game against the Cincinnati Bengals at Wembley Stadium on October 30, 2016 in London, England. (Photo by Alan Crowhurst/Getty Images)
LONDON, ENGLAND – OCTOBER 30: Jamison Crowder #80 of the Washington Redskins celebrates after scoring a touchdown during the NFL International Series game against the Cincinnati Bengals at Wembley Stadium on October 30, 2016 in London, England. (Photo by Alan Crowhurst/Getty Images) /

Jamison Crowder is entering his fourth season in the NFL. And this one will certainly be his most important one to date.

Following the 2016 season, the Washington Redskins controversially elected to overhaul their receiving corps. A year after both Pierre Garcon and DeSean Jackson finished with 1,000-plus yards receiving, neither of them returned to the team. Both players were deemed too expensive and were jettisoned in favor of younger, cheaper players.

On the surface, this may have been the right move for the Redskins, given Garcon’s health issues and Jackson’s ineffectiveness in Tampa Bay. But, the Redskins still dealt with problems in the aftermath of this decision. And as a result, their team’s receivers struggled during the 2017 campaign.

Free agent signee Terrelle Pryor was a bust. Second-year man Josh Doctson had issues with untimely drops and looked like a rookie, which was to be expected after he missed his first season with an Achilles issue. While Ryan Grant helped to pick up the slack, it wasn’t enough to make the receiving corps effective without the dynamic duo of Garcon and Jackson.

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Part of the problem was that the Redskins relied on projected growth from their younger receivers. Doctson and Pryor essentially had a combined one year of NFL experience between the two of them, so that explains their troubles. That said, Jamison Crowder, a player who was expected to step up and become more of a key target for the Redskins, was a problem for the offensive unit as well.

In 15 games, Crowder saw a career-high 103 targets, but he only caught 66 of them for 789 yards and three touchdowns. It was a tiny regression from the numbers he posted in his second season, but it seemed a lot bigger than that since many were expecting him to continue developing and become a 1,000-yard receiver.

Heading into 2018, the pressure is now on Crowder to become a key receiver in the offense. There are many factors that will be motivating the fourth-year man, and he knows that he will have to step up in order to ensure he has a future in Washington.

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