Calvin Ridley will help your fantasy team down the home stretch

Calvin Ridley just had his best fantasy football performance of the season vs. the Carolina Panthers on Sunday. Here is why that good play will continue.

The Atlanta Falcons have semi-shocked the NFL world in the last few weeks. They were 1-7 on the season entering their bye week. Atlanta has gone on to play outstanding ball the last two weeks against NFC South opponents by not allowing a touchdown against the New Orleans Saints and the Carolina Panthers on the road. Atlanta hasn’t surrendered a touchdown in 10 quarters.

While the revamped play-calling since the bye week has transformed this Falcons team from arguably the worst team in the NFC to a team that may not be an easy out the rest of the way, this is first and foremost an offensive-minded team. They have a top-10 passer all time in Matt Ryan, slinging the pigskin to a ton of great receivers in Julio Jones and Calvin Ridley.

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We all know that Jones is a first-ballot Pro Football Hall of Famer, but we have been waiting to see Ridley come alive in the Atlanta receiving game the entire season. The Fantasy Footballers took notice, as Ridley just had his best fantasy game of the season with eight catches for 143 yards and a touchdown, netting your fantasy team over 20 points. Will this great play continue?

Now that Atlanta is playing with confidence in all three phases of the game, we might see the Falcons team we thought we’d see at the start of the year contending for a division title. Another reason we can trust playing Ridley during the home stretch in fantasy is that Atlanta plays opponents it’s very familiar with in its final six games.

The Falcons will have to play the Tampa Bay Buccaneers twice, including this weekend at home. Atlanta has home games against the Saints and Panthers, as well as two games out of the division against teams the Falcons have a strong knowledge of what they do: the Jacksonville Jaguars and the San Francisco 49ers.

The Falcons play the Jaguars every year in the final game of the preseason due to relative proximity and playing in opposite conferences. Keep in mind that former Falcons offensive coordinator Kyle Shanahan is now the head coach in San Francisco. Both of those games will be tough, but head coach Dan Quinn shouldn’t have an impossible time coming up with a gameplan.