Zachariah Branch — Week 1: A Sixty-Four-Yard Return, Called Back
2026 NFL Season · Half-PPR Scoring · Monday, Sep 14
Branch was not thrown to Sunday. His day was four returns: a sixty-four-yard kickoff return to the Pittsburgh thirty-two in the second quarter that a holding penalty pulled back to the Atlanta twenty-four — the next snap was intercepted — and punt returns of fourteen, seven and thirteen yards. Atlanta lost 20–13 to the Steelers.
When Zachariah Branch's week moves the numbers, you'll know — every episode, in one weekly email.
The full episode, in writing
For the length of one kickoff return in the second quarter, Zachariah Branch had the longest gain of Atlanta's day, and then he did not. 12 28 left, Pittsburgh had just kicked a field goal to make it seven to six Falcons, and Chris Boswell's kickoff came down at the Atlanta four. Branch took it 64 yards up the field and was pushed out at the Pittsburgh 32. Then the flag: holding on Woods, enforced at the Atlanta 34, and the offense started from its own 24 instead. On the first snap from there Cooper Rush threw deep middle for Jahan Dotson and Jaquan Brisker intercepted it. Two plays after Pittsburgh's field goal, Atlanta had gone from a return to the 32 to handing the ball back.
The rest of his afternoon was punt returns. 14 yards to the Pittsburgh 45 at six 12 of the second quarter, after Pittsburgh punted from its own four, and Atlanta drove to the 36 and missed a 54-yard field goal. Seven yards to the 20 at nine 31 of the third, with an illegal-block penalty on Sydney Brown that put the ball back at the Atlanta 10. 13 yards to the 24 with 13 seconds left in the third, and that drive produced Bijan Robinson's 20-yard run and then the interception T.J. Watt returned for the touchdown. Zero targets, zero catches, zero carries.
The passing game he was not part of: Cooper Rush threw on all 26 of Atlanta's pass plays, and the targets went 10 to Bijan Robinson, four to Drake London, three to Dotson, one each to Kyle Pitts and Olamide Zaccheaus. That is 19 throws with a listed receiver on 22 attempts, four sacks, two interceptions, 12 completions for a hundred 43 yards. Rush was starting because Tua Tagovailoa and Michael Penix were both inactive, per Grant Gordon at NFL.com. Whoever the quarterback was, three wide receivers were thrown to a combined eight times.
The June preview's question about Branch — a third-round rookie from Georgia, the fastest player on the spring practice field, the return-job frontrunner — was whether the speed would get paid before it scored. Sunday it got the return job and four chances to use it, and the biggest of the four was taken off the board by a teammate's penalty. It got no throws. One game of zero targets in an offense that threw 22 times is not a verdict on the receiver half of the question, only a first entry. Atlanta is home to the Panthers on Sunday the twentieth.
_Data via nflverse._
When Zachariah Branch's week moves the numbers, you'll know — every episode, in one weekly email.
Keep going