Drake London has been ripping it up recently, particularly since Michael Penix returned from injury. But the Tampa Bay defense he’ll be facing on Sunday has been awfully good against wide receivers.
Not that anybody with London will be sitting him down. Since the Falcons got their quarterback in the lineup, London has caught 32 passes for 546 yards in five games. That’s an average of 6.4 catches for 109 yards (albeit with just one touchdown). London caught only 6 passes for 70 yards in the two Cooper Rush games.
But I have been extremely impressed by Tampa Bay’s defense. In a game at Cincinnati, the Bucs held Ja’Marr Chase to 2 catches for 12 yards. And in a game at Dallas, they limited CeeDee Lamb to 2 catches for 9 yards. Hardly seems possible.
By my count, in fact, seven times Tampa Bay has played against what most would agree are big-time wide receivers. Of that group, George Pickens caught 9 passes for 130 yards and a touchdown, but the other six combined caught only 16 passes for 199 yards, and with no touchdowns. That’s an average of 2.7 catches for 33 yards.
| STARTING WIDE RECEIVERS AGAINST TAMPA BAY | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Player | Tgt | No | Yards | Avg | Lg | TD |
| Tee Higgins, Cin. | 6 | 3 | 59 | 19.7 | 29 | 0 |
| Ja'Marr Chase, Cin. | 4 | 2 | 12 | 6.0 | 16 | 0 |
| KC Concepcion, Cle. | 6 | 6 | 28 | 4.7 | 9 | 0 |
| Denzel Boston, Cle. | 7 | 5 | 95 | 19.0 | 55t | 1 |
| Jordan Addison, Min. | 9 | 5 | 90 | 18.0 | 40t | 1 |
| Justin Jefferson, Min. | 2 | 2 | 32 | 16.0 | 19 | 0 |
| Matthew Golden, G.B. | 7 | 3 | 21 | 7.0 | 13 | 1 |
| Christian Watson, G.B. | 3 | 3 | 47 | 15.7 | 18 | 0 |
| George Pickens, Dall. | 13 | 9 | 130 | 14.4 | 27 | 1 |
| CeeDee Lamb, Dall. | 5 | 2 | 9 | 4.5 | 5 | 0 |
| DK Metcalf, Pitt. | 15 | 11 | 93 | 8.5 | 17 | 0 |
| Germie Bernard, Pitt. | 12 | 11 | 87 | 7.9 | 19 | 1 |
| Jalen Coker, Car. | 4 | 1 | 9 | 9.0 | 9 | 0 |
| Tetairoa McMillan, Car. | 6 | 4 | 40 | 10.0 | 12 | 0 |
| Drake London, Atl. | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? |
| Jahan Dotson, Atl. | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? |
If we pick through the numbers in more detail, Justin Jefferson left his Tampa Bay game after only 7 plays – seemingly on his way to a good game, with 2 early catches. And other wide receivers have had some success against the Bucs. Both Jordan Addison and Denzel Boston at Tampa Bay finished with 90-plus yards and a long touchdown.
In the Pittsburgh game (also at Tampa), both DK Metcalf and Germie Bernard caught 11 passes for around 90 yards, with the Bucs playing off and Aaron Rodgers peppering them with short completions.
But the Bucs overall have been really good against the pass, making it seem like a week where London won’t be as effective getting downfield. He’s averaged 17.1 yards per catch with Penix so far.
For our own purposes in our silly little game, the vast majority of London users will still be plugging him into lineups, and rightly so. But it should be with lowered expectations. This a week, for example, where Zay Flowers has a far juicier matchup (against a leaky Buffalo secondary). I would start Flowers over London in Week 8, no question.
—Ian Allan
