Falcons fantasy stud and dud from Week 13 vs. Jets

Hopefully you focused more on Atlanta’s defense than offense in fantasy this week.

The Falcons established legitimate and continuous momentum in their season for the first time since the very beginning, when they started 2-0, by winning their second consecutive football game.

It was an ugly game, as expected, in the elements of a very rainy Metlife stadium, between two offenses which have looked stuck in neutral for the most part this season. The Falcons came away with a victory but almost none of the fantasy relevant players on the team did very much in this defensive battle.

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 13’s victory against the New York Jets.

Fantasy Stud/Dud 2023 History:

Past Studs: Bijan Robinson (5), Tyler Allgeier (1), Kyle Pitts (1), Desmond Ridder (1), Drake London (1), Younghoe Koo (1), Jonnu Smith (1)

Past Duds: Kyle Pitts (4), Drake London (2), Bijan Robinson (2), Tyler Allgeier (1), Younghoe Koo (1), Desmond Ridder (1)

Fantasy Stud – Falcons Defense/Special Teams

Stat Line: 4 sacks, 1 interception, 4 forced fumbles, 2 fumble recoveries, 6 points allowed, 259 yards allowed: 21.0 standard league/PPR points

The Atlanta Falcons defense has been pretty good in terms of real life football play, but they haven’t really done the job in fantasy as the unit has been among the league’s worst in generating turnovers as well as sacks, both of which are the foundation of fantasy points.

They were a decent streaming option given the fact that it was against Jets team starting Tim Boyle at quarterback, and the Falcons defensive unit exploded with a season high four forced fumbles, a season high three generated turnovers, a season low in points allowed and their second highest sack total in a game this season.

The results were magnificent, with the Falcons D/ST the number one scoring unit at their position this week going into the Monday Night Football game. They are trending up, as their two highest fantasy scoring performances have each come in the past two weeks, coming out of the bye week.

You could do worse than the Falcons defense as a streaming option next weekend against a Bucs offense against whom they already scored 13.0 fantasy points against in Week 7. That’s followed with a very promising matchup against a sputtering Panthers offense meaning that Atlanta’s D/ST is firmly on the fantasy radar.

Dud

Drake London: 1 catch, 8 receiving yards: 0.8 standard league points; 1.8 PPR points

We knew that the passing game would likely struggle in this game against the Jets and the weather, but the results for Drake London in particular were catastrophic. One reception for eight yards signals his worst game of the season outside of the Week 1 matchup where he was held without a catch.

London was tied for second on the team with five targets, but he and Desmond Ridder could not get on the same page at all throughout the afternoon, and facing the Jets’ talented secondary did not help matters. It did seem like the team made more of a concentrated effort to get Kyle Pitts involved (eight targets) which also came at the expense of London.

Things should get easier for the USC alum moving forward, as none of the defenses Atlanta is slated to face for the rest of the season are as good as New York’s. It starts with a Tampa defense that allowed London to secure six catches for 54 yards in Week 7, but the greater concern has been the lack of touchdowns — London has just two on the season and Ridder has thrown for just eight total in 11 games.

London should be looked at as no more than a flex option moving forward.