Instant fantasy football takeaways from Falcons-Buccaneers Thursday Night Football

Wide receivers shine in a shootout: Mike Evans, Darnell Mooney And Drake London all scored at least 23 PPR points.

Kyle Pitts came back: The Atlanta Falcons tight end posted his best numbers of the season, which should leave him in a fantasy starting lineup.

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Estimated reading time: 5 minutes

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Tampa Bay Buccaneers @ Atlanta Falcons

Kyle Pitts bounces back: Pitt's playing time and stats rebounded after hitting season lows last week.

Pitts failed to catch any of his targets last week, and his playing time slowly but surely decreased each week. There was a general tendency for Charlie Woerner to come in for run plays, but Woerner ran seven routes last week that could have gone to Pitts, whose role last week was still better than most tight ends in the league, but the downward trend was worrying.

This week, Pitts posted his second-best snap rate of the season, behind only Week 1. Considering the number of plays the Falcons ran, it was particularly impressive that his snap rate was high. Pitts caught seven passes for 88 yards, which is his best fantasy performance of the season despite not having a touchdown. While this was partially a product of the Falcons running a lot of plays, Pitts was still more involved than usual early in the game.

This game doesn't necessarily mean he'll be an asset for fantasy managers every week, but the combination of his target speed and snap rate is enough for Pitts to remain in fantasy starting lineups going forward.

Buccaneers continue to split: Rachad White led the team in rushing yards for the first time this season.

White typically played at least 80% of the Buccaneers' offensive snaps last season. Over the first three games this season, that has dropped to 70%-74%. Bucky Irving has outpaced White thus far, dropping his playing time to 58% of Tampa Bay's offensive snaps last week. That included White playing fewer snaps on early downs and in passing situations.

This week's rotation was very similar to last week's, as White played slightly more than Irving on early downs while the two were split in short-yardage situations. The biggest difference in their usage from last week is that White was consistently on the field in third-and-mid or third-and-long situations, which wasn't the case last week.

The big difference in performance was that White broke a 56-yard run, but off that play he ran the ball nine times for 16 yards. Irving consistently posted positive gains. Irving has averaged out 4.8 yards per carry in four of five games this season, while this is the fourth time that white had taken the average 4.8 or better in it his 39-game career. Both players had few opportunities as the Falcons won time of possession and the passing game was generally successful.

Both players will remain borderline fantasy starters depending on the opponent.

Buccaneers adjust at wide receiver: The Buccaneers were without three of their top six wide receivers.

Jalen McMillan missed his second straight game due to a hamstring injury Trey Palmer dropped out last week after a concussion. McMillan had been the team's third option, at the back Mike Evans And Chris Godwinwhile Palmer took over as the third option last week.

Veteran Sterling Shepardwho started this season on the practice squad, was signed to the active roster and served as the team's third wide receiver throughout the game. He was expected to rotate at least a little bit with the undrafted rookie Kameron Johnsonbut Johnson suffered an ankle injury on his first offensive snap and did not return. Former Seattle Seahawk Kameron Johnson was elevated from the practice squad and he became the main backup throughout the game and did not play much. He signed with the Buccaneers in June.

As a result, the team relied almost entirely on their reliable weapons Evans, Godwin and Cade Ottonalthough Shepard scored a touchdown. The Buccaneers' third wide receiver should be largely avoided in redraft leagues, but there's always a chance they could have a good game due to the amount of defense having to focus on other wide receivers.

Various comments

• Sesame Robinson kept running Tyler Allgeier slightly more than earlier in the season, but it's worth noting that he was on the injury report due to a hamstring injury and was limited in practice. Besides, it was a short week.
• Drake London missed 13 plays in the second quarter while being evaluated for a concussion. He was able to return to the game. He returned to his usual role of never leaving the field once he returned to the game.
• London caught eight passes for 117 yards and a touchdown from the slot. In both 2022 and 2023, he had just 22 receptions from the slot and scored one touchdown in the two seasons combined. His previous high in receiving yards from the slot was 55, which was two weeks ago against the Kansas City Chiefs.
• London was removed from the match after suffering an injury in the penultimate match. He seemed fine during a post-game interview on the field shortly after the game. Kha Darel Hodge, who replaced London earlier in the game, replaced London again to score the winning touchdown.
• Cade Otton has caught 16 passes in his last three games, which is the most for him in all three games of his NFL career.

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Table notes

• Snaps include plays called back due to penalties, including offensive holding or defensive pass interference. These plays have been removed from the other three statistics.
• Objectives may differ from official NFL sources. The most likely discrepancy would be the result of an obviously thrown pass, where the NFL could give the target to the nearest receiver, while this data does not.
• Carries are only possible on designed plays. Quarterback scrambles do not count toward the total number of carries in the game.