The more things change, the more they stay the same. The Atlanta Falcons signaled movement to a new regime this past offseason but it just doesn’t matter. No matter who’s in charge, this team has continues to choke.

The Falcons choked away a fourth quarter lead in rather inexplicable fashion — well, it would be inexplicable for any other team. That term doesn’t really apply to a franchise whose reputation is staked on blowing leads.

The good news is that the offense had its best game yet, and that resulted in a good day for fantasy football managers who had Atlanta players in their lineups.

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 4’s defeat against the Washington Football Team.

Fantasy Stud/Dud 2021 History:

Past Studs: Cordarrelle Patterson (2), Younghoe Koo (1)

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

Fantasy Stud - Cordarrelle Patterson

Stat Line - 6 carries, 34 rushing yards, 5 catches, 82 receiving yards, 3 receiving touchdowns: 29.60 standard league points; 34.60 PPR points

This is becoming the Cordarrelle Patterson article series. He has been the team’s most impactful fantasy player in each of the past three weeks, tying Calvin Ridley last season for the longest such run since I’ve been writing this series. During this particular week, Patterson was the highest-scoring running back in all formats at the conclusion of Sunday’s games.

It’s not an anomaly. Cordarrelle Patterson is a major part of this offense, and he needs to be treated as such by fantasy managers. He has gotten at least nine touches in every game this season, and he continues producing with those opportunities. Last week, the former University of Tennessee man had his first 100-yard game from scrimmage since 2014, and he’s only had to wait one week before getting another such game.

Patterson was carving the Washington secondary up, getting behind the defense, making contested catches and making defenders miss en route to three receiving touchdowns in what was a heroic performance. CP already has five offensive touchdowns just four games into this season, which is the second highest single season total of his career.

Not only should Patterson be nowhere close to available on your league’s waiver wire (seriously, go get him if he is) but he’s now consistently demonstrated that his floor is high enough to make him a weekly start regardless of matchup.

Dud

Younghoe Koo - 1/1 20-29, 3/3 PAT: 6.0 standard league/PPR points

Before you get the pitchforks and torches ready, I’d just like to emphasize that I think Younghoe Koo played a wonderful game on Sunday. He converted on every one of his kicks, and even delivered a pretty good punt when the Falcons were in a pinch, after starting punter Cameron Nizialek got injured.

However, kickers can still have poor fantasy days even when they do all that is asked of them, when there isn’t opportunity. Koo was sent out to kick a field goal just once all afternoon, and that resulted in a not so good fantasy day.

Going into the Monday Night Football game, the Georgia Southern alum was outscored by 13 other kickers in fantasy. The lack of opportunity has been troubling all season for Koo fantasy managers, as the former kicker of the AAF’s Atlanta Legends has attempted a meager five combined field goals throughout the first quarter of the season.

Coming into Week 4, Koo was the 24th ranked kicker in fantasy, as he has yet to score more than 6.0 fantasy points in a single game. That’s a terrible return on investment for someone who was on average one of the first three kickers taken in drafts.

Atlanta’s offense just isn’t getting into the red zone and sputtering like it was last season, which helped Koo become the highest scoring kicker in fantasy in 2020. I would not recommend using up an extra roster spot to continue holding on to Koo when the Falcons have their bye week after this upcoming game.