The fantasy football landscape shifts each week, bringing fresh opportunities and unexpected challenges that separate the prepared from the pretenders. Savvy managers know that last week’s performance tells only part of the story, and diving deeper into the underlying metrics reveals the accurate picture.
This week presents some intriguing decisions. Here’s insight about key Atlanta Falcons players heading into their matchup with the Arizona Cardinals to help you craft a winning lineup.
Kirk Cousins, QB
Kirk Cousins lit up the Buccaneers on Thursday night (373 yards and three touchdowns) and gets a favorable spot in the desert this weekend.
Don’t get cute.
Yes, he looked great last week, but that was a pass-funnel defense that this Atlanta coaching staff is comfortable with. Cousins wasn’t better than QB15 in any of his starts this season before Week 15, and he had as many touchdowns as interceptions.
He doesn’t offer anything with his legs, and his accuracy down the field has been nothing short of prohibitive (3-of-19 on balls thrown 20+ yards this season). This is a team that is playing for nothing and has limited supporting talent in terms of the pass catcher room.
Cousins isn’t a quarterback you should trust in a semifinal situation, even after the huge Week 15 performance.
Bijan Robinson, RB
Bijan Robinson finds a way to impress every week.
On Thursday night against the Bucs, he had 64 rushing yards in the first half to complement a 33.3% target share. He finished with double-digit targets for the second time this season and cleared 150 scrimmage yards for the sixth time this season.
With Tyler Allgeier vulturing TDs and the QB play being subpar at best (dismal at times), is Robinson’s best fantasy season ahead of him?
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You could sell me on it, and that is why he’ll be in the 1.01 mix this summer. He’s gone over 1,800 scrimmage yards in consecutive seasons, and his efficiency has increased during each season.
To me, he feels like Carolina Christian McCaffrey, and that means he has the potential to reach peak CMC levels if he can get even average support from his running mates.
Tyler Allgeier, RB
With eight touchdowns this season, Allgeier has been more of a pair in the side of Robinson managers than a realistic flex option, and that’s the bucket in which I have him in this week as well.
Last week was the sixth time this season in which Atlanta’s RB2 has been held under five carries, and with 48.5% of his PPR points coming on touchdowns, there’s far more risk than reward in flexing a profile like this.
Perhaps he scores and threatens to reach double-digit points. At best, that’s keeping you competitive, a ceiling that isn’t of interest to me, with a near-zero floor that could result in you being sent home.
Darnell Mooney, WR
Who needs Darnell Mooney when you have the greatest tight end of all time?
Mooney showed us a nice connection with Cousins in 2024 and hauled in a 49-yard TD in his first start post-Michael Penix injury, but he’s been an afterthought ever since, even with Drake London sidelined.
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He’s totaled just 66 yards on 15 targets over the past three weeks and has been held without a 20+ yard reception over that stretch. On Thursday night, David Sills V had a bad drop, and he still finished with as many catches as Mooney had targets and was part of a condensed attack from Cousins (Sills, Robinson, and Kyle Pitts combined to earn 33-of-41 targets, 80.5%).
It was a reasonable add to make a month ago in the hope of making good on the chemistry from last season, but that ship has clearly sailed, and there’s no reason to hold onto him at this point.
Drake London, WR
In Weeks 1-11, London was PPR WR3 (19.7 PPG, trailing only Jaxon Smith-Njigba and Puka Nacua), and over the last three weeks (Weeks 9-11), he was the top performer in the position.
Following the strong 2024 showing (100-1,271-9), Atlanta’s ace was viewed as a Tier 2 receiver that fantasy managers could trust at a high level, loyalty that he very much rewarded you for in 2025 before suffering this knee injury.
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London hasn’t played since, and with the Falcons assured of missing the playoffs for an eighth consecutive season, it’s challenging to count on him returning. You’re in the semifinals, and you’ve navigated the past month around this injury: I’d plan on doing more of the same for as long as your run lasts.
Kyle Pitts Sr., TE
Well, that was something.
I don’t want to say that Kyle Pitts took the intrigue out of your playoff matchup last Thursday night, but there’s a good chance he did just that.
- 11 catches on 12 targets
- 166 yards
- 3 touchdowns
- 45.6 PPR points
Have yourself a day, good sir!
He did the first name proud and clearly wasn’t hampered in the least by the knee injury that was noted on the injury report during the week. Pitts hauled in a 13-yard pass on the first drive, a 26-yarder on the second drive, capped that second drive with an eight-yard TD that seldom came to pass (Atlanta elected to take a field goal off the board because of a penalty on Tampa Bay), and we were off to the races.
By halftime, he had already set a career high in fantasy points (29.1), and on the final drive, his 14-yard catch on third-and-28 will be forgotten, but without it, I can’t imagine that the Falcons go on to win this game (21-yard completion to David Sills V on fourth-and-14).
In totality, he became the first TE this season with 80+ receiving yards in three straight games, posted the fourth-best fantasy playoff game, regardless of position, since we went to the 18-game schedule in 2021, and registered the most points by a TE in a fantasy playoff game this millennium.
So yeah, there’s a chance your matchup was over before the weekend.
He’s earned at least a 25% target share in all four games since this season became Cousins’ to finish, and that volume is what you should fall in love with as we near the finish line. The touchdowns obviously made Thursday night special, but we know those can be fleeting for the best in the game, never mind a profile like this (11 touchdowns in 74 career games before last week).
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Pitts isn’t likely to post another historic performance this weekend and carry your team, but he does offer one of the five best roles at the position right now, and that puts him in a position to help your team hugely for a fourth straight game.
I can’t wait to see where his ADP falls in August after nearly four straight underwhelming seasons and this sprint to the finish with a QB that likely won’t be on the roster.
