One of the cardinal rules of fantasy football is: “Thou shalt not draft Robby Anderson, thou shalt add Robby Anderson on waivers midseason after he’s been rage-dropped by the team that originally drafted him.”

That rule remains intact after Anderson emerged from a radio-silent free agent market to sign on as a square-peg-in-a-round-hole deep threat for a Carolina offense set to open the year quarterbacked by underneath-throwing Teddy Bridgewater.

On average, Anderson was targeted 14.6 yards beyond the line of scrimmage last season, and his career average in yards per reception is 14.8. Both of those figures are more than double Bridgewater’s 6.1-yard average depth of target over the past three seasons.

And for as much success as Bridgewater had with the Saints last year, it didn’t spill over to the team’s primary deep threat, Ted Ginn Jr., who suffered a major drop-off with Bridgewater compared to Drew Brees:

• Ginn with Brees: 19-of-33 (57.6%), 268 yards (8.1 YPT)
• Ginn with Bridgewater: 11-of-23 (47.8%), 153 yards (6.7 YPT)

This signing wreaks of Paul Richardson to the Alex Smith-quarterbacked Redskins in 2018. Anderson is now nothing but a fringe top-50 fantasy WR who should be treated as a WR5.

This signing also takes Curtis Samuel off the fantasy map, but it may improve his real-life usefulness to the team, as it opens him up to run more higher-percentage routes rather than remain in the deep-threat role he struggled for efficiency in last season.

D.J. Moore should remain a fantasy WR1.

In New York, this puts Jamison Crowder in position to dominate targets. In Sam Darnold’s 13 starts, Crowder posted WR3 value in PPR and WR4 value in standard, averaging 8.3 targets, 5.4 catches, 58.3 yards and 0.46 touchdowns compared to 4.7 targets, 2.7 catches, 25.0 yards and zero TDs in three games without Darnold.

Crowder is a steal at his average draft position as the WR54 at MyFantasyLeague.com at the time of the Anderson deal.