Atlanta Falcons Fantasy Football Team Preview For 2026

The Atlanta Falcons weren't exactly expected to be world beaters entering 2025. After all, this is a squad that hasn't boasted a winning record or won a playoff game since 2017.

Still, the actual performance put forward was a bit disheartening. There wasn't much to write home about amidst a 4-9 start that included losses to bottom dwellers like the Dolphins and (gasp) Jets. Occasional Bijan Robinson and Drake London fireworks were cool and all, but overall, this was most people's idea of a mediocre football team.

Fantasy Football Team Preview For The 2026 Atlanta Falcons

That said, new year, new Falcons, and a number of big-time changes were made to hopefully get better results in 2026:

Head coach Raheem Morris is out, and Kevin Stefanski is in. The ex-Browns head ball coach brought his OC Tommy Rees with him to hopefully get things grooving like they were at the beginning of his tenure in Cleveland.
While Michael Penix might still be the QB of the future, longtime Dolphins QB Tua Tagovailoa was added to provide competition in the room. It remains to be seen which lefty will win out—Penix's recovery from (another) knee surgery doesn't help his cause.
The offense added pieces like Georgia WR Zachariah Branch, ex-Commanders/Eagles WR Jahan Dotson and former Commanders/49ers RB Brian Robinson.
The team's top draft pick was none other than AJ Terrell's brother, Avieon! The feisty Clemson nickelback was drafted with the 48th overall pick and adds another quality piece to a secondary that was already considered a strength.

What follows is a fantasy-focused team preview of the Atlanta Falcons ahead of the 2026 season. Make sure to check out our consensus fantasy football rankings for updated player ranks all year long.

As always: It's a great day to be great.

Who will win this gross quarterback competition?

QB1: Tua Tagovailoa (QB31)
QB2: Michael Penix (QB32)
QB3: Trevor Siemian

Well, Fantasy Life's group of alleged experts is giving Tua Tagovailoa the edge for now, but it does appear to be a fairly wide-open competition.

On the one hand, Tua has played some high-level football over the years. On the other hand, he did not put his best foot forward during a ROUGH 2025 campaign.

Tua Tagovailoa's career EPA per dropback:

2020: -0.11 EPA per dropback (33rd)
2021: +0.03 (19th)
2022: +0.18 (3rd)
2023: +0.15 (3rd)
2024: +0.21 (4th)
2025: -0.01 (30th)

Maybe the new digs bring out the 2022-2024 version of Tagovailoa, but it's tough to be too optimistic about the former No. 5 overall pick. At his best, Tua combines pinpoint accuracy with quick enough decision-making to attack all three levels of the field. Unfortunately, recent years have featured plenty of struggles with taking care of the football (career-high 15 interceptions in 2025) along with lackluster off-script ability. We can't give Mike McDaniel and Tyreek Hill all of the credit for the team's high-octane 2022-2024 offenses, but they very well might deserve most of it!

Who Has The Leg Up Between The Two QBs?

Does Bijan Robinson deserve to be Mr. 1.01 in fantasy drafts?

RB1: Bijan Robinson (RB2)
RB2: Brian Robinson (RB59)
RB3: Tyler Goodson

It's largely a two-man race between Bijan and Jahmyr Gibbs. Credit to Robinson for being anyone's idea of an ultra-talented, three-down workhorse in the middle of his best years—but the difference in overall offensive firepower is what has Fantasy Life rankers leaning Gibbs at the top of drafts. Fantasy Life team projections have the Lions ranked second in offensive touchdowns per game, while the Falcons rank … 21st.

Is That Enough To Push Bijan From 1.01?

Is Drake London poised to push for the league lead in targets?

WR1: Drake London (WR7)
WR2: Zachariah Branch (WR72)
WR3: Jahan Dotson
WR4: Olamide Zaccheaus
WR5: Casey Washington

Well, the Falcons now have 141 million reasons to force-feed London the football!

And why wouldn't they? The plus-sized 24-year-old talent already posted an electric 100-1,271-9 receiving line in 2024 (WR13 in PPR points per game) and was putting up some bonkers numbers before spraining his knee in 2025. In fact, London was banged up for most of last season, as he also played through shoulder and hip issues during the early portion of the season … and he still finished as the WR7 in PPR points per game!

Now, the aforementioned lackluster QB room isn't ideal, but we have seen Penix be more than happy with peppering his No. 1 receiver with targets, and Tua certainly didn't have a problem force-feeding Tyreek over the years. Our fantasy football projections currently have London as one of just seven wide receivers expected to see at least 140 targets this season.

The question becomes just how high is too high to rank London …

Where Is Drake London In The WR Rankings?

Can Kyle Pitts replicate his 2025 success?

TE1: Kyle Pitts (TE8)
TE2: Austin Hooper
TE3: Charlie Woerner

Kyle Pitts' 11-166-3 eruption in the first week of the fantasy playoffs was the cherry on top of the most productive season of his career. A Jay-Z-level encore is worth betting on, considering there's plenty of precedent from the play-caller (David Njoku and Harold Fannin have four top-eight seasons since 2022) and QB (Tua got a LOT out of Jonnu Smith and Darren Waller).

That said: We are talking about a LARGE portion of Pitts' success coming with London out of the picture …

What To Expect From Kyle Pitts In 2026

Predictions For The 2026 Atlanta Falcons

Win total prediction: The Falcons have won eight games in back-to-back years and actually finished with the division's second-best point differential last season at … -48. The NFC South does indeed offer a cushy schedule compared to most (all?) other divisions, but the schedule gods didn't exactly do Atlanta a lot of favors by matching them up with the AFC and NFC North. I'm taking UNDER 7.5 wins for a team likely to have the worst quarterback in a majority of their matchups next season.

Bold fantasy call: Zachariah Branch does his best Jarvis Landry impression, collecting enough screens and designed low-aDOT targets to finish as a top-five most-productive rookie receiver in PPR fantasy land.

Last season predictions: OVER 7.5 wins (hell yeah, brother), and Darnell Mooney to post a top-30 finish in PPR points per game (damn you Injury Gods … but this was also probably just wishful thinking. We'll watch the film and get better).