The Struggles of This Falcons Unit Have Become Impossible to Ignore

FLOWERY BRANCH – The Atlanta Falcons have suffered through a difficult season, and the struggles in the wide receiver room have played a central role in their offensive issues.

After a breakout season in 2024, the unit has since experienced a rather seismic regression this season, leading to Ray-Ray McCloud’s release, the firing of position coach Ike Hilliard, and a general lack of depth in that room.

With Drake London still working to come back from a PCL injury in his knee, the Falcons’ lack of options has been thrust into the limelight, yet again.

After a standout camp performance, Casey Washington has been a healthy scratch more often than not. Darnell Mooney has not quite put all the pieces together after struggling through various injuries this season. KhaDarel Hodge was a healthy scratch on Sunday.

In fact, David Sills V seems to be the only player who realized that London would not be available. He has scored a touchdown in each of his last two games.

With the shortcomings elsewhere, Dylan Drummond was promoted to the 53-man roster ahead of the Jets game and was active ahead of Hodge. He caught one of his three targets for three yards, but Falcons head coach Raheem Morris praised his consistency.

“We had to make a change there and try to just get a spark,” he said. “Drummond's done a nice job for us in that role, providing us a little bit of consistency, being able to go out there and make some plays and do some different things on offense.”

Drummond gives them a speed element, Morris said. One that they hoped they would get out of Washington this summer when they retained him on the initial 53-man roster.

All told, the wide receiver room (not including London) is now up to 50 catches for 621 receiving yards and three touchdowns on the season. A stark contrast to London’s 60 receptions for 810 yards and six scores, despite sitting out three games due to injury.

In fact, those totals barely cover the totals of either Kyle Pitts Sr. (56 receptions, 541 yards, one touchdown) or Bijan Robinson (54 receptions, 594 yards, two touchdowns).

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The wide receiver group has been closer to replacement level, in terms of its on-field performance, than the unit that seemed to be out there last season.

Pitts and Robinson have clearly been the primary caretakers of the offense if London is unable to play or accounted for by opposing defenses, but the Falcons have been burned by their inactivity at the wide receiver position.

Receivers have dropped passes and struggled with separation.

“You never talk about this, but it’s injury. Who are we kidding?” Morris said about the regression of his wide receiver room. “[Darnell] Mooney got hurt the first day of camp. Drake [London]’s out now. Obviously, Ray-Ray [McCloud] is no longer with us. But all those things happen, and you’ve got to keep moving. You’ve got to keep going. Nobody ever makes excuses about those things, but we’re not as healthy as we were last year.”

Health certainly played a role in the issues that the room has had this season, but the Falcons gambled that they would get similar production from that group after breakout performances across the board.

The Falcons gambled that a breakout wide receiver room would sustain, but it has not. As Atlanta heads toward an offseason filled with tough questions, the wide receiver room may be the clearest example of how thin the margin for error really was on offense.