The Falcons suffered a catastrophic defeat in Week 15 against their dreaded rivals. This week was one in which the majority of fantasy leagues started their playoffs, and the Falcons’ fantasy relevant players did not disappoint for the most part.

The Desmond Ridder era began and gave us a look into what we may expect from Atlanta’s offense moving forward. Top receiver Drake London was targeted heavily, Arthur Smith was not afraid to dial up deep passes and the run game did not suffer in the slightest. However, on the opposite end, Ridder himself was mostly inaccurate and got away with some bad mistakes, but he is a rookie making his first start, after all.

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 15’s defeat against the New Orleans Saints.

Fantasy Stud/Dud 2022 History:

Past Studs: Cordarrelle Patterson (3), Drake London (3), Marcus Mariota (2), Tyler Allgeier (2), Kyle Pitts (1), Younghoe Koo (1), Olamide Zaccheaus (1)

Past Duds: Kyle Pitts (4), Drake London (3), Marcus Mariota (2), Younghoe Koo (2), Falcons D/ST (1), Cordarrelle Patterson (1)

Fantasy Stud - Tyler Allgeier

Stat Line: 17 carries, 139 rushing yards, 1 rushing touchdown, 1 reception, -3 receiving yards: 21.60 standard league points; 22.60 PPR points

This felt like Tyler Allgeier’s coming out party. The rookie out of BYU made clutch play after clutch play whenever the Falcons needed him, as he was given a larger role due to an early Caleb Huntley injury. His highlight drive came on the opening possession of the second half, when he scampered for a 43-yard gain before finishing the sequence off with his second rushing touchdown of the season, from five yards out.

Allgeier rewarded any fantasy managers who trusted him in their lineups, and those who desperately played him due to injuries to other running backs on their roster. The 139 rushing yards were a career high, and the second-highest mark by a Falcon this season. Allgeier ended up as the overall RB8 in PPR leagues and overall RB5 in standard leagues going into the Monday Night Football games.

Allgeier will likely be given more opportunity moving forward, as it was announced that Huntley will miss the remainder of the season. Cordarrelle Patterson is still there, and he had 14 carries himself, but great running from Tyler will open up the opportunity for Smith to utilize CP more elsewhere along the line of scrimmage.

Dud

Desmond Ridder: 97 passing yards, 6 carries, 38 rushing yards: 7.68 standard league/PPR points

There were some Ridder truthers who inserted the Falcon into their starting lineups this weekend as a streaming quarterback, more so those in two quarterback leagues. Ridder in his debut put up a very poor fantasy day, which would have been worse had Saints defensive backs been able to hold on to at least a couple of would be interceptions thrown their way.

The rookie out of Cincinnati had below 100 passing yards, missing throws all afternoon, and both of Atlanta’s touchdowns came from handoffs. Ridder did display some positive rushing upside which may serve him well in the future. He also seemed to settle in a bit on the final drive, getting Atlanta into field goal range for at least a tie before Drake London fumbled the ball.

It would not be advisable to start Ridder in any games moving forward this season, especially with the Ravens and Bucs defenses still on the horizon. Atlanta will likely lean on its running game and the only receiving threat on the depth chart at the moment is London. Ridder should be rostered in all dynasty leagues, however, as he could be a valuable contributor next season.