Team news: Atlanta Falcons

Falcons WR Russell Gage will not play Week 3 at the Giants according to Armando Salguero of Outkick.com.

Related Players: Olamide Zaccheus, Christian Blake

Tough break for the Falcons to lose their second-most trusted wideout in a very thin group. Zaccheus and Blake will see more work, and do not be surprised if Hayden Hurst plays an important role in the short-to-intermediate passing game.

In his Friday column, Orlando Ledbetter took a look at the Atlanta Falcons roster and predicted its 53-man roster. In it, he has Mike Davis, Cordarrelle Patterson, and Keith Smith as running back locks ahead of Qadree Ollison. “Those guys are competing, and they all ran pretty hard,” Falcons head coach Arthur Smith said. “Certainly, all of them, Q (Ollison), Caleb (Huntley) … and (D'Onta) Foreman ... there’s good competition there.”

In the words of Lee Corso, "Not so fast my friends!" Majority of the offseason has been spent figuring out who amongst Ollison and recently cut Javian Hawkins would back up Davis, but Ledbetter, a trusted Falcons reporter, is here to pour cold water on the Ollison back-up hype train. Ollison's value was already only tied to a Davis injury, so rostering him at all at the moment seems unwise.

Unless the Falcons bring in another change-of-pace RB to compete with Javian Hawkins, I'd actually say his place on the 53-man roster is pretty safe.

Related players: Mike Davis, Qadree Ollison

Knight pointed out the Falcons already cut his biggest competition in Tony Brooks-James. Ollison will also be involved in the offense but as of now it looks like Davis is going to be the team's main back coming off a pretty good 2020 filling in for Christian McCaffrey. As we point out though, Davis has just a 3.7 YPC average for his career, so the guys behind him could end up getting chances.

Falcons WR Olamide Zaccheus has been the standout wide receiver for the Falcons with Calvin Ridley and Russell Gage leading the depth chart, according to Kevin Knight of 'The Falcoholic' of SB Nation. "Zaccheaus has also notably been lined up both in the slot and outside, so there’s a chance he could be the starting outside WR opposite Calvin Ridley when the Falcons are in 12 personnel packages," wrote Knight.

The last line is important to note as Russell Gage has worked best from the slot. Zaccheus could also line up opposite another Falcons receiver if Atlanta wants Ridley to get looks inside away from potential shadow coverage. The Falcons may have to throw more unless RB Mike Davis can impress similarly as he did with Carolina in 2020. That could mean more snaps and targets for Zaccheus after showing signs of talent when injuries took away some of Atlanta's receiver depth last season.

Calvin Ridley apparently accomplished that on a foot he called “not good last year.” But after offseason surgery, Ridley said this week that his foot is “totally, definitely fixed.”

“In the offseason, I was really worried about myself,” Ridley said, via Michael Rothstein of ESPN. “But now, the best thing I could have did was get the surgery and it really helped.”

Ridley started 15 games, making 90 catches for 1,374 yards with nine TDs last season.

We have signed RB Cordarrelle Patterson and S Duron Harmon.

They referred to him as an RB but Cordarrelle Patterson's main contributions have come on special teams as a returner. It will be interesting to see how Atlanta plans to use the 30-year old this season. He's not currently on the fantasy radar aside from leagues with return points.

Source: #Panthers RB Mike Davis to the #Falcons on a 2 year deal worth $5.5M with $3M fully guaranteed in Year 1, source says.

Among the free agent running backs listed here, the 28-year-old Davis had the third-highest points per game last season, ahead of Kenyan Drake, James Conner and Leonard Fournette. Todd Gurley and Brian Hill are both free agents as well, so Davis likely sits atop a Falcons' depth chart that includes Ito Smith, Qadree Ollison and Tony Brooks-James. Depending on what the Falcons do in the draft, this could be a very underrated signing given Davis' production last season (1,015 total yards and eight touchdowns), his versatility (59 catches), and new HC Arthur Smith's history of a strong running game while calling plays for the Titans. Davis is no Derrick Henry, however, and the Falcons are very much a threat to draft a running back, so owners shouldn't get too excited just yet. At worst, Davis will be a Zero RB target as a backup to a talented rookie. At best, he'll start for the Falcons in 2021 and should go off the board in the fifth round. In the 19 games since the 2017 season where Davis has seen at least 10 carries, he has averaged 17.9 touches for 80 total yards and 0.63 touchdowns. Those would have been solid RB2 numbers in 2020.

We have re-signed K Younghoe Koo, DE Jacob Tuioti-Mariner, CB Tyler Hall and WR Christian Blake.

Younghoe Koo is a consistently reliable fantasy kicker in the NFL, and currently sits as K1 in 4for4's never-too-early rankings.

"With the Titans, Smith’s offense got the ball to tight end Jonnu Smith in the red zone quite a bit. Smith finished the 2020 season with eight touchdowns while catching 41 passes for 448 yards.

With this direction on offense, Hurst’s skill set has a chance to be utilized to its full potential."

Hurst was named as someone who could benefit from new head coach Arthur Smith's offense, as both Jonnu Smith and Anthony Firkser combined for 118 targets in 2020.