Zachariah Branch — Week 3: One Catch and a Return Called Back
2026 NFL Season · Half-PPR Scoring · Saturday, Sep 26
Branch caught one of two targets for 7 yards, a third-and-eleven deep incompletion and a 7-yard catch in the second quarter, and a third deep ball his way drew an illegal-contact penalty. His 25-yard kickoff return to the Atlanta 28 was pulled back by holding on Josh Woods, the same call on the same teammate that pulled back his 64-yard return in Week 1, and he returned a punt 18 yards, in a 35–14 win over the Packers.
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Seven to nothing, Packers, five 13 left in the first quarter. Green Bay kicked off 62 yards to the Atlanta three, and Zachariah Branch brought it out 25 yards to the 28. Then the flag: holding on Woods, 10 yards, enforced at the 25, and Atlanta started from its own 15 instead. In Week 1 a 64-yard Branch kickoff return came back on a holding call against Woods. That is two returns in three weeks pulled back by the same penalty on the same teammate.
The line: two targets, one catch, seven yards, no first downs, −0.9 expected points on the targets — expected points added is what a play was worth given down, distance and field position. The incompletion was third and 11 at the Atlanta 26 with 10 19 left in the first quarter, deep left, 17 yards in the air, nothing to nothing. The catch was first and 10 at the Atlanta 17 with 14 48 left in the half, tied at seven, short left, four yards behind the line, and he took it to the 24 for seven. A third deep ball his way, first and 10 at the Atlanta 45 with eight 42 left in the third, fell incomplete and did not count: illegal contact on Green Bay, five yards and a first down. Both targets came before halftime, both from Michael Penix, two of the 23 Falcons throws with a receiver.
On punts he returned one 18 yards from the −1 to the 17 on the first snap of the second quarter and made a fair catch at the 36 with nine 42 left in the half. Olamide Zaccheaus fielded Green Bay's other two returnable punts, and a fifth went out of bounds. Drake London drew 10 targets and Jahan Dotson three; nobody else on the roster had more than two.
Back in June the preview's read on Branch — a third-round rookie from Georgia, the return-job frontrunner — was that return value would be weekly and real and receiving value would be a handful of designed touches until proven otherwise. Week 1 was four returns and no targets. Week 2 was two catches behind the line. Thursday was two targets, one of them a deep shot, one catch, and another return pulled back by the same flag. Three games in, the deep throws his way are new, and none of them has been caught yet. Atlanta is at the Saints on Monday the fifth.
_Data via nflverse._
When Zachariah Branch's week moves the numbers, you'll know — every episode, in one weekly email.
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