ATLANTA VS CAROLINA

The Falcons were busy in the offseason, totally overhauling their defense and then using a top-10 pick on college’s best running back. They’re poised to move up in an NFC South featuring a couple of rebuilding teams.

Favorable matchup with one of those here: Carolina was below-average defensively a year ago and isn’t necessarily improved. Atlanta won a 37-34 shootout at home, losing the road meeting 25-15 a few weeks later. But both teams are considerably different now. … The Falcons will emphasize the ground game, that much is certain. What’s less clear is how they’ll divvy up carries between Bijan Robinson and Tyler Allgeier. (At least this week, Cordarrelle Patterson shouldn’t be involved, having been sidelined the last several weeks due to a soft-tissue injury.) However the carries are distributed, Robinson will be the main pass catcher at the position, putting him in play for 8-plus points in PPR leagues without even factoring in running. He’s a natural receiver and produced in that area at Texas the last two years, catching 45 passes for 609 yards and 6 touchdowns in 22 games, averaging nearly 14 yards per catch. Allgeier, in contrast, caught 16 passes all of last season, with 1 touchdown (against this opponent, as it happens). For running, it should be more of a shared workload, and Allgeier (with a nod to his 1,035-yard rookie season) might even get more of the carries early on...

This report is just a small snippet of the Week 1 edition of Fantasy Index Weekly, part of the In-Season Analyst package. The newsletter includes our player rankings and 20-plus pages of matchup previews, plus stat projections and custom rankings for the games being played this weekend.

Haven't ordered yet? BUY IT NOW! Already a subscriber? LOG IN!