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 New Orleans Saints to help you craft a winning lineup.
Kirk Cousins, QB
It wasn’t a work of art by any means, but Kirk Cousins guided the Falcons to an impressive win over the Rams on Monday night. He was only asked to throw 20 passes, and eight of them went to Bijan Robinson: if you look up “game managed successfully” in the dictionary, his performance last week was exactly what you’ll see.
- Zero turnovers
- Zero sacks
He got Atlanta in position for the go-ahead 51-yard field goal with 21 seconds left. It goes without saying that Cousins’ time as a fantasy asset is done, but he showed in Week 17 that he can execute a basic plan and feed the star player.
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That’s more than some teams have as a backup; we know that much.
Bijan Robinson, RB
With a huge Week 17 against the Rams, Robinson has locked in consecutive seasons with over 1,400 rushing yards and 60 catches. Prior to him doing it in back-to-back campaigns, that stat line had only been reached twice in a decade (Ezekiel Elliott in 2018 and Christian McCaffrey in 2023).
BIJAN ROBINSON IS THE MOST TALENTED RUNNING BACK IN THE #NFL.
THIS ANGLE OF THIS RUN IS JUST ABSURD.
One of one. Special 😱😱😱
pic.twitter.com/DUlPpelcu7— MLFootball (@MLFootball) December 31, 2025
He’s excelled, again, with limited help. Through 17 weeks, the Falcons rank in the bottom 10 in passer rating, completion percentage, and touchdown rate. Defenses are designed to stop #7, and it hasn’t mattered: What is possible if they get league-average play at the quarterback position? What is possible if Tyler Allgeier doesn’t take eight touchdowns off his plate?
Robinson is in the 1.01 discussion, and, to be honest, he starts it for me.
Drake London, WR
When Robinson is doing Robinson things (229 yards and two TDs against the Rams on Monday), his teammates turn into spectators more than contributors, and that was the case with Drake London.
Snaps weren’t the issue (98.1%), and time of possession was essentially a wash, but London earned just a pair of targets on his 19 routes and really did nothing to help you if you were hoping for him to swing your fantasy championship.
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Bad games happen, and sometimes they occur at the worst possible time, but this dud shouldn’t stop you from considering him a low-end WR1 in 2026 (or this week, for that matter).
He’s got five WR1 finishes on his resume this season, and that includes three weeks in which he led the position in scoring. His 2.38 yards per route are a career best, and he’s been targeted on over 28% of his red zone routes in all four of his NFL seasons.
A healthy London can be counted on for the 100-1,271-9 stat line that he gave us last season, and I think there’s upside for growth from there. He is a good example of the depth at the position: he probably won’t be a first-round pick in redraft, but it doesn’t take much squinting to see him returning a profit on a second-round ADP if Atlanta can get anything close to league-average play under center.
Kyle Pitts Sr., TE
We can agree that he’s sucked us back in, right?
I can’t remember a love/hate relationship as strong as the one fantasy managers have had with a 25-year-old as they do with Kyle Pitts, and that makes him an interesting evaluation every season.
Here’s where I stand: above-average tools in a shaky spot with below-average developmental traits.
In essence, I’m not sure the Falcons have operated with much of a plan lately, which makes it hard for the non-elite (those not named Drake London or Bijan Robinson in Atlanta) to succeed consistently.
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Yeah, yeah, I’m sort of fence-sitting, but that’s the reasonable thing to do. Pitts was an acceptable option for the first three months of this season before transforming into a peak Rob Gronkowski once we passed Thanksgiving. He’ll have a spot in my top-10 for 2026, but he’ll be closer to 10 than five due to a lack of clarity when it comes to the quality of targets he’ll be seeing.
The 2025 NFL Draft class gave us a pair of tight ends that I’ll be ranking ahead of Pitts in 2026, and that means he only has so much potential to move up in my ranks as next season nears.
