You’re laughing? The Falcons gave a guy in his mid-30s with one Achilles $100 million and then spent the #8 overall pick on his successor, and you’re laughing? In the end, Kirk Cousins fell apart, and the Falcons needed to use Michael Penix in a last-ditch effort to turn their season around. But what of their fantasy football outcomes? What happened to the Atlanta Falcons for us to remember in 2025? Let’s dive in.
Kyle Pitts More Like Kyle Sh—eesh He Was Really Bad
I will be honest with you: there isn’t a way to slice and dice Kyle Pitts’ season to make something valuable out of him. He had six top-twelve weeks, four top-ten weeks, and two top-eight weeks. He also disappeared almost entirely in six weeks, scoring fewer than 3 PPR points. He did it with Kirk Cousins (28.6% top-10 rate) and he did it with Michael Penix (33.3% top-10 rate). There isn’t anything here to make me believe that he can turn it around, either. If you pop under the hood over at PlayerProfiler.com, all he has going for him are air yards. But, he also has the #32 true catch rate, #35 contested catch rate, and the third-most drops at tight end. He was just a disaster all around, but his six top-twelve weeks don’t remove him from fantasy relevance entirely, it just moves him to the streaming discussion, instead.
Drake London: A Michael Penix’s Best Friend
Drake London started the season slow, getting just 4.7 catches for 45 yards per game in his first three games with Kirk Cousins. As Cousins grew, London flourished, getting 9 targets, 6 catches, and 71 yards per game. All told, he had a 24.6% target share, and a 35.7% air yards share. Then, the Falcons switched over to Michael Penix, and Drake London somehow came to dominate the Falcons’ offense even more. In the three games with Penix, London accounted for 39% of the Falcons’ targets and 49.8% of their air yards. In these three games, he averaged 13 targets, 7 receptions, and 117 yards per game, while scoring twice in three games. This bodes well for London in 2025, as Penix will be his full-time quarterback, and they are forming a connection.
Spicy Bijan Mustard, #1 on the Menu, #1 in Drafts?
Bijan Robinson had a tough start to the season. Teams teed off on him, mostly thanks to Kirk Cousins being functionally immobile, and the Falcons not yet responding to that fact. From week six, until the end of the fantasy season, Bijan Robinson was second in touchdowns, third in rushing yards, and fourth in running back receptions. Robinson racked up all those stats while ranking sixteenth in running back opportunity share… meaning there’s even more room for him to grow. Robinson is uniquely suited to go first overall next season, especially when you consider that he won’t be saddled with a hindered Kirk Cousins in 2025, and will have an entire offseason to acclimate to Michael Penix. It makes more sense, to me, to go with Ja’Marr Chase, but Bijan is entering his prime and should take over for an aging Saquon Barkley & Jahmyr Gibbs sharing touches with David Montgomery.
Michael Penix: We Are All Out of Genitalia Jokes
Michael Penix has The Juice™. He had a limited rookie campaign, especially when you consider that the Falcons shut him down early in the preseason. Penix had some struggles in his three-game debut, but there are some things to get excited about: he averaged 246 passing yards per game, which would come out to make him the first 4,000-yard Falcons passer since Matt Ryan in 2020 throughout an entire campaign. While he threw just three touchdowns, all three of his interceptable passes per PlayerProfiler.com turned into picks, and the league average hovers around 50%. So, he got a bit unlucky there. Penix also pushed the ball downfield hard, averaging 10.1 air yards per pass attempt. That might not sound like a lot, but only Anthony Richardson had a higher AY/PA this year among qualified passers. That gives Penix a chance to bite off a lot more in 2025. I am bullish about his potential for next season, especially if Darnell Mooney and Penix can get on the same page.
Darnell “to the” Mooney
After a disastrous week one for the entire Atlanta passing game, Darnell Mooney had all the makings of a league winner. From weeks two through fourteen, he averaged 7.6 targets, 4.7 receptions, and 71.5 receiving yards per game, scoring 5 touchdowns in those 12 games. His season-long pace was 129 targets, 79 catches, 1,216 yards, and 7 scores. That would have been roughly analogous to Ladd McConkey’s campaign (82 catches, 1,149 yards, and 7 touchdowns), but Kirk Cousins fell off the map, and then Michael Penix didn’t focus on Mooney in the two games he played together. After reaching such high heights, Penix and Mooney somewhat connected, but didn’t do anything groundbreaking: 3.5 catches for 60 yards per game in their two contests. Still, that makes for a nice floor. Mooney remains the surest hands on the roster and one of the most sure-handed receivers in the league. His 92% true catch rate, is his third-straight season above 90%, which should be a boon for Penix in 2025.
