Falcons fantasy stud and dud from Week 6 vs. Commanders

The Atlanta Falcons accomplished something very difficult to do in Week 6 — they out gained their opponents 402 - 193 (over 200 more yards) and still somehow found a way to suffer defeat. That’s actually borderline impressive, when you think about it.

The Falcons didn’t have much issue racking up the yardage against Washington, but the points simply did not come and the offense kept falling flat after being given opportunity after opportunity by the defense in the second half.

The silver lining, if you’re into fantasy football, is that your fantasy relevant Falcons likely showed up for you. I hope you had more success in your matchup than the Birds did this weekend.

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 6’s defeat against the Washington Commanders.

Fantasy Stud/Dud 2023 History:

Past Studs: Bijan Robinson (2), Tyler Allgeier (1), Kyle Pitts (1), Desmond Ridder (1)

Past Duds: Drake London (2), Kyle Pitts (2), Tyler Allgeier

Fantasy Stud - Drake London

Stat Line: 9 catches, 125 receiving yards: 12.5 standard league points; 21.5 PPR points

This is what we would call an explosion from Atlanta’s former number 8 overall draft pick. London set a career high with 125 receiving yards, routinely working as Desmond Ridder’s favorite target and first read in this one. His nine catches as well as 12 targets both represented career highs, as well.

London actually had nearly as many yards in this one as he did in his past three games combined (137), but he was definitely the beneficiary of game script with Atlanta passing the ball playing from behind for much of the game. Despite not finding the end zone, London is still the overall PPR WR5 this week as of the conclusion of Sunday’s game.

While I would not expect these kind of explosions weekly, this was still a breath of fresh air and a sigh of relief for London fantasy owners who were maybe a bit worried when he barely had over 100 total yards four weeks in. It’s a good sign for him that the coaching staff is starting to trust Ridder to throw the ball a bit more prolifically.

Dud

Younghoe Koo: 1/1 XP, 1/1 FG (1 40-49): 5.0 standard league/PPR points

Before I continue, I just want to preface this by saying that yes, I know Koo did everything asked of him and made both kicks he was tasked with, but remember that we are exclusively viewing this from a fantasy football lens. Kickers who do not get enough opportunity, whether through any fault of their own or not, end up having bad fantasy weeks.

Arthur Smith’s aggressive philosophy of coaching today hurt Koo’s fantasy production. The team went for it on fourth down in the red zone in the fourth quarter which took away a FG opportunity, and then they did not even call their kicker for the extra point after scoring the subsequent touchdown, instead opting to go for two.

Normally a top tier fantasy kicker, Koo has been worrying and at times infuriating for those who roster him in fantasy. He has just one double digit scoring game this season, has put up a combined 19 points over the past four games (less than 5.0 per game) and is just the overall K25 on the season.

With Atlanta’s offense looking anemic in the scoring department many weeks, it may be advisable to try your luck with another kicker if you’re still rostering Koo at this point.