I don’t think I could overstate the importance of winning this weekend against the Jets and avoiding a 1-4 start, which would have been catastrophic for the perceived competitiveness of this season. The flight home from London will be a lot more cheerful and the atmosphere should be a lot better heading into the bye week.

Down their two top wide receivers on the depth chart, the Falcons still put together a really good offensive display, powered by a fierce first half where they couldn’t do anything wrong up until the Hayden Hurst fumble. Fantasy managers who started Falcons got an opportunity to wake up early and watch the fantasy points pile up.

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 are Atlanta’s fantasy stud and fantasy dud from Week 5’s victory against the New York Jets.

Fantasy Stud/Dud 2021 History:

Past Studs: Cordarrelle Patterson (3), Younghoe Koo (1)

Past Duds: Matt Ryan (1), Mike Davis (1), Kyle Pitts (1), Younghoe Koo (1)

Fantasy Stud - Kyle Pitts

Stat Line: 9 catches, 119 receiving yards, 1 receiving touchdown: 17.90 standard league points; 26.90 PPR points

Welcome to your breakout, Kyle Pitts. With Russell Gage and Calvin Ridley not making the trip to London, all eyes were looking at Kyle Pitts to see if he could step into the role of Matt Ryan’s primary target. He stepped up to the challenge.

Pitts was a massive part of this week’s gameplan and he had by far the best game of his young career at this point, leading the Falcons in receptions and receiving yards today as Matt Ryan looked his way early and often.

Pitts was the recipient of a first-and-goal touchdown on Atlanta’s second drive (his first career score) and he helped set up the team’s final score with a 39-yard reception to start the team’s final drive.

The number four overall selection in the 2021 NFL Draft finally rewarded fantasy managers who invested a 5th round ADP for his services in redraft leagues, and he had managers in dynasty leagues salivating in anticipation for what’s to come in his career. I wouldn’t expect this kind of stat line to be the norm after Ridley and Gage return, but it’ll certainly be better than what we’ve been seeing before this game.

Dud

Olamide Zaccheaus: 2 catches, 20 receiving yards: 2.0 standard league points; 4.0 PPR points

Honestly, Zaccheaus doesn’t belong in any part of this article series at all — he’s not rostered in enough leagues to be considered fantasy relevant — but he kind of falls into here by default. Every other player that’s rostered and started in fantasy for the Falcons had a good performance.

Zaccheaus has struggled with some drops these past two weeks, including two on consecutive plays at one point, but he made a crucial first down reception on 3rd-and-13 on Atlanta’s final drive to help set up the game-winning touchdown score. He also recovered the onside kick on the hands team.

No matter what the situation is with Atlanta’s receivers, no WR outside of Calvin Ridley (and Cordarrelle Patterson if your league designates him as a receiver instead of a running back) should be started or even rostered at this point.