The roller coaster of Drake London’s season hit a new high.
The Falcons suffered a crucial defeat in the NFC South this weekend, and with it sacrificed their control at the top of the division in favor of making it a 3-team dogfight.
This was the last weekend of the fantasy regular season for most leagues, with the playoffs happening between weeks 15-17. It was time for a final playoff push and the good news is that most of Atlanta’ big time fantasy relevant players likely helped you more than they hurt.
There is a lot of great content available here at The Falcoholic, and I encourage you to check it out if you want some in-depth analysis. This article will look at things strictly from a fantasy football perspective (that means looking at nothing other than pure statistics). Here is Atlanta’s fantasy stud and fantasy dud from Week 14’s victory against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.
Fantasy Stud/Dud 2023 History:
Past Studs: Bijan Robinson (5), Tyler Allgeier (1), Kyle Pitts (1), Desmond Ridder (1), Drake London (1), Younghoe Koo (1), Jonnu Smith (1), Falcons D/ST (1)
Past Duds: Kyle Pitts (4), Drake London (3), Bijan Robinson (2), Tyler Allgeier (1), Younghoe Koo (1), Desmond Ridder (1)
Fantasy Stud – Drake London
Stat Line: 10 catches, 172 receiving yards, 1 2-point conversion: 19.2 standard league points; 29.2 PPR points
You never know what you may get with Drake London this season. In some games the floor has been so low that it’s fallen out from under him, such as last week’s one catch for 8 yards dud performance, and then you have other games where Desmond Ridder locks in on him and makes magic happen.
Drake London set new career highs with both his 10 catches and 172 receiving yards, blowing his previous high water yardage mark of 125 out of the water. It was the most yards in a single game in Week 14 heading into the Monday Night Football games, and it puts him as the overall WR2 for the week as of the conclusion of the Sunday games.
London was targeted 11 times and kept coming down with the ball, including a magnificent 45 yard catch where he snagged it out of the air in front of two Bucs defenders on a crucial fourth quarter drive. This was a special performance which signified why the Falcons invested a top 10 pick in the wide receiver out of USC, and if you stuck with him in your lineups you were greatly rewarded for it.
Dud
Younghoe Koo: 2/2 PATs, 1/3 FGs (1/1 20-29, 0/2 50+): 5.0 standard league/PPR points
Koo showed up as a “fantasy dud” in a game just one other time this season and it was solely because he did not get much opportunity to see the field. This one is different, as Number 7 did get plenty of opportunity only to see it wasted.
It really could have been a dynamite day for Koo and it started well enough, with him hitting a field goal and an extra point before we even got midway through the second quarter, before the rest of the half turned into a nightmare. Before the quarter was over, Koo had missed a 50-yard field goal and then a 52-yard try, which ended up really costing the Falcons in the end.
I understand that these are by no means chip shots, but in today’s NFL kickers are expected to nail attempts in the low 50s range at a high clip. To make matters worse, because of the points left on the board, the Falcons never deployed Koo again after halftime. It was even more painful for Younghoe Koo fantasy owners who are in leagues where they lose points for missed kicks.