Falcons are bad, but Mohamed Sanu is good for your fantasy team

While the Atlanta Falcons are 1-5 on the year, one receiver on that team you’re not thinking about could help your fantasy team. That would be Mohamed Sanu.

With teams coming and going off their annual byes, it is important to keep your eyes on the free-agent market in your fantasy football league. Though the Atlanta Falcons find themselves at a terrible 1-5, The Fantasy Footballers see a ton of value in their No. 3 receiver Mohamed Sanu. If he’s available in your fantasy, go pick him up now.

The idea behind Sanu being a wise play in the flex on occasion, or if one of your team’s typical starting wide receivers is on bye, is that the Falcons often play from behind late in games. In essence, you’d be capitalizing on garbage time passing numbers from Matt Ryan, spreading the ball around in the hopes Atlanta could make a shocking comeback late in a game.

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Atlanta does have a deep receiving corps, so you’d have to consider that, too. However, it will be in the short-to-medium passing game where Ryan will try to march up the field when playing from behind. That is the area of the field where Sanu thrives. Since running the ball with Devonta Freeman or Ito Smith will be mitigated, look for Sanu and tight end Austin Hooper to capitalize.

The difference between Hooper and Sanu’s value is tremendous given the positions they play in the Atlanta offense. Great tight ends are hard to come by. While Hooper is just a good tight end, his stock has been elevated in recent years, not to mention he’s been playing at a Pro Bowl-level for the last two seasons.

As for Sanu, he’s the No. 3 option in the Atlanta wide receivers room behind Julio Jones and Calvin Ridley. Jones does everything well, but often targets double teams by the defense. Ridley is talented, but only in his second year in the NFL out of Alabama. He’s more of a vertical, speed threat at this point more than anything.

And that leaves Sanu in position to gobble up all those short passes from Ryan. He can thrive in the slot and Ryan has no problem targeting him on crucial third-down situations in the middle of the field. Given that he’s more reliable than Atlanta’s No. 4 receiver Justin Hardy, Sanu offers great value as a complementary receiving option on your team. Atlanta may be bad, but Sanu is good.