Drake London — Week 3: Nine Catches, Career-High Yardage
2026 NFL Season · Half-PPR Scoring · Saturday, Sep 26
London caught 9 of 10 targets for a career-high 194 yards and five first downs, with a 68-yard catch on third and two from the Atlanta 16 that was the longest play of the game and a 40-yarder that set up the final touchdown. All five third-down targets were caught and three converted. Ten targets were 43 percent of the Falcons' throws with a receiver, in a 35–14 win over the Packers.
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24 to seven, Falcons, 14 17 left in the fourth quarter, third and two at the Atlanta 16. Michael Penix threw deep left to Drake London, 24 yards in the air, and London was pushed out at the Green Bay 16 after 68. +5.2 expected points added — expected points added is what a play was worth given down, distance and field position — the largest figure on any pass or run by either team, and the longest play of the game. The drive stalled after a penalty and a pair of losses and ended in a field goal.
The line: 10 targets, nine catches, a hundred 94 yards, five first downs, no touchdown, +12.3 expected points on his targets. 82 yards in the air on the catches, a hundred 12 after the catch. The catches: four on third and 10 in the second quarter, not converted; seven pushed out at the Atlanta 43; seven on second and 13; 20 over the middle to the Green Bay 43 with three 42 left in the half; 16 deep left on third and one to the 18 with two minutes left, converted, on the drive that ended in Austin Hooper's touchdown; 16 on third and seven to the Green Bay 16 with five 41 left in the third, converted, on the drive that ended in Brian Robinson's touchdown; the 68; 16 on third and 23 to the 13, short of the sticks; and 40 deep right to the 13 with five 17 left, up 27 to 14, three snaps before Bijan Robinson's last touchdown. The one incompletion was first and 10 at the Green Bay 45, short left, with 11 58 left in the half. Five of the 10 targets came on third down, all five caught, three of them converted. Six targets before halftime for 54 yards, four after for a hundred 40. A deep incompletion his way in the first quarter did not count, because a roughing-the-passer penalty on Green Bay gave Atlanta a first down instead.
10 targets were 43 percent of the 23 Falcons throws that had a receiver. Jahan Dotson had three; Bijan Robinson, Kyle Pitts, Zachariah Branch, Olamide Zaccheaus and Austin Hooper two each. His hundred 94 yards were the most by any receiver in the game, ahead of Matthew Golden's hundred, and a hundred 94 of Penix's 256 passing yards went through him. It is the most receiving yards of London's career, past the hundred 87 he had against the Panthers in the last game of 20 24.
Back in June the preview called London "the alpha the market finally priced" — seventeenth among wide receivers last season on a 30-percent target share across 12 games, nine-plus targets a game, the kind of volume that tends to hold. Week 1 was four targets and two catches for 29. Week 2 was five and four for 51. Nine targets in two games with Cooper Rush and Jack Strand throwing, and both episodes said the contradiction could not be separated from who was throwing. Thursday was the first game with Michael Penix, and it was 10 targets, nine catches and a career high. That is the preview's read arriving in one night, and it is also one night; a share that was 16 percent on Sunday and 43 on Thursday has not settled anywhere yet. Atlanta is at the Saints on Monday the fifth.
_Data via nflverse._
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