This article series concludes for the season by singing the praises of Bijan Robinson.
It was a brutal defeat at the hands of the Washington Commanders on Sunday Night Football, which has now stripped the Falcons of control in the NFC South and has all but eliminated them from playoff contention, even if they are still mathematically alive.
The offense looked choppy at times in the second half, but they managed to put up points and made things worthwhile for plenty of fantasy owners in their championship weeks.
As this is the final week of the season for the vast majority of leagues, this will be the last “fantasy stud and dud” article of this season.
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 17’s defeat against the Washington Commanders.
Fantasy Stud/Dud 2024 History:
Past Studs: Bijan Robinson (8), Darnell Mooney (2), Younghoe Koo (2), Drake London, Kirk Cousins, Kyle Pitts
Past Duds: Kirk Cousins (5), Kyle Pitts (4), Drake London (2), Darnell Mooney (2), Tyler Allgeier, Younghoe Koo
Fantasy Stud – Bijan Robinson
Stat Line: 17 carries, 90 rushing yards, 2 rushing touchdowns, 3 catches, 8 receiving yards: 21.80 standard league points; 24.80 PPR points
What Bijan Robinson did this season was special, completely breaking out to the tune of over 1,600 yards from scrimmage along with 13 touchdowns (again, I am only looking at things from a fantasy perspective with this being the final week).
Out of 17 total weeks, Robinson was the “fantasy stud” in more than half of those games, which is good for a record for this column. He finished as the overall RB2 in PPR scoring formats only behind Saquon Barkley, and has more than justified his Round 1 selection in fantasy drafts this past August.
In this game, Bijan added two more touchdowns just for good measure, and he made full use of his 20 touches. It seemed like this would be a nuclear type performance after both of those scores came in the first half, but the Falcons’ offense was kept off the field for the majority of the second half which really stifled the run game.
Robinson will be another no doubt first round selection in next year’s fantasy drafts, and he’s a staple for anyone lucky enough to have him in dynasty leagues.
Dud
Darnell Mooney: 2 catches, 37 receiving yards: 3.7 standard league points; 5.7 PPR points
It wasn’t the best performance for Darnell Mooney, who’s been a pleasant surprise this year after being a very late round pick or even undrafted in fantasy leagues back in August. The first year Falcon had catches of 25 and 12 yards, finishing third on the team in receiving.
Michael Penix Jr. put together 223 passing yards, and nearly half of them went to Drake London, with Kyle Pitts coming alive late and securing Penix’s first ever passing touchdown to tie the game on 4th and goal. That left Mooney as the sort of odd man out.
Mooney will be a fine late round draft selection in leagues next year, and could wind up being a steal if you can get him in the ninth round or later. London and Bijan will get most of the hype but Mooney should not be completely forgotten after having arguably the best year of his career.