Commanders vs. Falcons Fantasy Football Worksheet, Week 17

The Worksheet, a comprehensive fantasy football preview by Rich Hribar, breaks down everything you need to know about the Week 17 matchup between the Falcons and Commanders on Sunday Night Football.

Find a breakdown of every Week 17 NFL game in our Worksheet Hub.

Trust = spike production for that player

Quarterback

Jayden Daniels (TRUST): Sunday was the signature moment for a sensational rookie season by Daniels.

We had yet to see Daniels and this offense deliver against a front-end defense, and he not only got over but was also the highest-scoring quarterback in Week 16 (34.4 points).

Daniels has made good on his touchdown regression.

He threw 5 touchdowns against the Eagles, his fourth game in a row with multiple passing scores.

He threw multiple touchdown passes in 3 of his opening 11 games.

Through 11 games, Daniels did not have a touchdown pass on a throw that did not travel into the end zone.

He has three of those over his past four games.

After a 3.4% touchdown rate through 11 weeks (26th), he has had an 8.7% touchdown rate since (2nd).

We have already seen Daniels deliver in soft matchups, which he has here.

The Falcons are 25th in the league in passing points allowed per attempt (0.462).

They have had a nice run here facing Drew Lock and Desmond Ridder the past two weeks, but before that, the Falcons had allowed front-end QB1 scoring weeks to Sam Darnold (34.6 points), Bo Nix (28.8 points) and even Derek Carr (20.5 points).

Atlanta has also struggled to slow down quarterbacks who can move.

They are 22nd in rushing yards allowed to quarterbacks.

Justin Fields (57 yards), Jalen Hurts (85), Baker Mayfield (42), and Dak Prescott (30) all added strong rushing lines against them while Ridder (28 yards) and Andy Dalton (21 yards) chipped in production on the ground.

Daniels is averaging 49.1 rushing yards per game.

Michael Penix: Making his first career start at home against the Giants, Penix connected on 18-of-27 (66.7%) of his passes for 202 yards.

Penix's debut fantasy score (6.4 points) was not impressive, but there were plays left on the field that could have aided his production.

He had the highest drop rate (11.1%) in Week 16.

Drake London dropped a touchdown pass while Kyle Pitts dropped another pass inside of the five-yard line that resulted in an interception.

The biggest thing we were looking for was what Atlanta would do differently transitioning to Penix.

He used play action on 22.2% of his dropbacks.

Although that was only 21st in Week 16, Kirk Cousins was dead last in play action rate (14.3%), so there was an improvement.

Atlanta used pre-snap motion on 69% of his dropbacks, seventh in the league last week.

Cousins was at 59.4% prior.

Penix threw outside the numbers on 61.9% of his throws, fourth in Week 16.

Cousins had a 42.8% rate.

While all of those were positive signs for this offense, let’s not forget that the conditions for Penix at home against a Giants defense were comfortable conditions to get your first start.

Now, he is going on the road against a playoff team helmed by a tenured defensive head coach.

He is still a QB2 option and a single-game DFS dart.

Penix was only pressured on 9 dropbacks Sunday, completing 2-of-7 passes for 24 yards (3/4 Y/A) on those plays.

Washington is eighth in the NFL regarding pressure rate (36.6%).

Running Back

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