Two weeks of poor fantasy football performances from Drake London surely have managers ready to press the panic button on their seasons. After all, the Atlanta Falcons star was drafted as a cornerstone of lineups and hasn’t yet lived up to expectations. However, it’s not time to bail out on the wide receiver just yet.
A new quarterback is on the way in Week 3 as Michael Penix Jr. returns to the fold and has already been named the starter. With his return, should fantasy managers still be panicking about Drake London’s outlook?
Should fantasy managers be panicking about Drake London before Week 3?
For the first two weeks of the new season, it’s been backup Cooper Rush under center for the Falcons. Michael Penix Jr. wasn’t healthy enough to start after rehabbing his torn ACL and offseason signing Tua Tagovailoa suffered an injury before the first game that’s kept him sidelined as well. The results with the career backup haven’t been encouraging, to say the least.
In Week 1, Atlanta scored just 13 points as Rush was forced to throw the checkdown all day – Bijan Robinson saw 10 targets in that outing. In Week 2, the team failed to score a touchdown and finished with just three points in a blowout loss that saw the quarterback benched after two interceptions in favor of undrafted free agent Jack Strand. It’s been a tough scene for fans of the franchise, but fantasy managers with London are probably just as frustrated.
The wideout was selected in the early rounds of fantasy drafts but hasn’t lived up to anything close to his ADP. In Week 1, he posted just 5.5 fantasy points in PPR formats with two catches for 29 yards on five targets. He saw another five targets in Week 2 but produced only 8.9 points, catching four passes for 51 yards. A little better, sure, but still far from what he was drafted to do in lineups.
Now, there is a little bit of hope moving forward. Penix Jr. has been named the starter for Week 3, bringing some upside to this passing attack. In nine starts last season, he threw for 1,982 yards and nine touchdowns, averaging 220.2 passing yards per game. He’s not a perfect quarterback by any means and may not be his usual self as he returns from injury, but there’s a significantly higher floor and ceiling than what Rush has provided over the first two games.
Across Penix’s nine starts last year, London recorded 60 catches for 810 yards and six touchdowns. The most important stat to know is that he saw 94 targets in total, an average of over 10 per game. Target volume is a kingmaker for fantasy football, so their established connection will be a major boon for the wideout moving forward. When both played last season, London averaged 6.7 receptions, 90.0 yards and 0.7 touchdowns per game; he also posted five outings of 100+ yards.
Look at the fantasy production over that span, too. Across the nine games in which Penix was the quarterback in 2025, London averaged a very impressive 19.67 FPPG in PPR formats. He finished with double-digit points in seven of those appearances, notched 20+ points four times and even exploded for outings of 31.8 and 38.8 points. When he got into the end zone, he was one of the best receivers in all of fantasy football.
What does that tell us moving forward? London’s outlook should improve by a significant margin sooner rather than later. Week 3’s matchup against the Green Bay Packers probably won’t be the easiest, but it’s not the most imposing defense for this Atlanta passing attack to face. If nothing else, Penix should look in the direction of his top wideout early and often as a trusted target while he works his way back to game speed. Don’t panic; start London with confidence on Thursday Night Football.
