Fantasy football preview: Bye week edition

Greetings, Falcoholics! The Atlanta Falcons are now 2-3 and back home, enjoying their Bye Week. Although the team is now taking a week off from football, fantasy football does not take a pause. Today, we’ll be reviewing Falcons’ players contributions to fantasy so far this season as well as some replacements you can potentially find right now.

Throughout the season, every Friday, we will be previewing the fantasy matchups and who you may want to consider starting and also benching. Additionally, if you have any fantasy questions you’d like answered, you can submit them every week.

With that, let’s get started.

Matt Ryan is trending upward in fantasy

After starting the season off on the wrong foot, Matt Ryan has become a viable fantasy starter over the last few weeks. He’s currently rostered in 55% of leagues, which means there’s a good chance he’s available in yours right now. Ryan enters the bye Week with the 14th most fantasy points among all quarterbacks, making him an ideal bye week replacement or starter in super flex leagues.

If you have Cordarrelle Patterson, he’s a must-start every week going forward

Most folks likely didn’t draft Cordarrelle Patterson, so if you were lucky enough to grab him off waivers, good job! Depending on your league, Patterson may be used as both a running back and wide receiver, which brings fantasy owners even more value. He enters Week 6 with the 7th most fantasy points as a wide receiver, and the 3rd most fantasy points as a running back. Who saw that coming?

Kyle Pitts finally goes off

We all knew that it was coming, we just didn’t know when. Kyle Pitts finally went off this season, recording 26.9 fantasy points against the New York Jets. Now that the Falcons have seen what their 4th pick is capable of doing at the next level, Pitts production should remain high heading into the Week 7 matchup with the Miami Dolphins. With how thin the tight end position is this year, if you have Pitts you’re starting him anyways.

Not the fantasy production you hoped for

While there have been some fantasy surprises which are mentioned above, there’s definitely been some let downs. Everyone who selected Calvin Ridley in their league drafts took him with the expectation that he would be a top-5 wide receiver in 2021. Instead, Ridley is currently 39th in fantasy production and will now miss two straight weeks due to the Bye Week. We don’t know the specifics of what caused Ridley to miss the game in London, so we just have to wait for now.

More of a victim to Patterson’s break out this season, Mike Davis has yet to have the kind of game that fantasy owners drafted him hoping to see. Although Davis hasn’t put up RB2 numbers, he’s been a viable low-end flex play as he has scored 10.2 or more fantasy points in each game this season.

Some fill-ins for Week 6

With Patterson, Pitts, Ridley, etc. being out, you may need a replacement this week. Don’t laugh, but a quarterback I really think is worth streaming this week is Washington’s Taylor Heinicke. Heinicke put up a season-high 36.8 fantasy points two weeks ago against the Falcons, and this week he faces a Kansas City Chiefs defense which has allowed the 2nd most fantasy points to opposing quarterbacks this season.

Running back wise, there’s not a whole lot. If you’re desperate, Jerrick McKinnon should see an uptick in targets with Clyde Edwards-Helaire missing time. Darrel Williams will get the bulk of the carries, but the Chiefs are a great fantasy offense that should put up some points this week. Similar to Mike Davis, a safe play is wide receiver Tim Patrick. Patrick is rostered in only 35% of leagues and has had at least 12.7 fantasy points in four out of five games this season.

That about does it for the Week 6 fantasy football preview. Next week the Falcons travel south to face the Dolphins. As I say every week, when it comes to fantasy football – always go with your gut!