The Atlanta Falcons lost bad on Sunday and now for Week 3 the team has some solid fantasy football options in Julio Jones, Roddy White, Antone Smith, Steven Jackson, Jacquizz Rodgers, Devonta Freeman, Devin Hester and Matt Ryan, but FF owners should also be aware that White is banged up and could be a game time decision for the Thursday night matchup with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.
The Falcons won over the Saints in Week 1 in an exciting matchup that went down to the wire, but the team did not look good in Week 2 against the Bengals. Both White and Jones are banged up according to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, but the most recent reports have the two players "likely" playing on Thursday night. Thursday games are always tough for fantasy owners, as they have to make important decisions days before the main matchups on Sunday.
Both White and Jones were injured last season at various times and that has given some pause for fantasy owners because they don't want to get burned on Thursday. Devin Hester and Harry Douglas are solid options to pick up off the waiver wire if White or Jones can't go, as Hester has turned out to be a nice surprise so far in a couple games for the Falcons omen offense on top of his return game skills.
With White and Jones up in the air a bit, fantasy owners should look at Douglas and Hester, with Douglas coming in rated a bit higher than Hester right now. White was banged up last season while playing in 14 games and he had just 63 catches for 711 yards, hit lowest totals since back in 2006 when he was just a second year player. White has had at least 1296 yards in each of the past three seasons before last year and he also put up 100 receptions twice in that span and 92 the other season.
Jones missed most of last season with an injury and now he is dealing with an ankle, but right now it looks like he will be playing. Jones had 79 catches for 1198 yards and 10 touchdowns the season before getting injured and in just five games last year he had 41 catches for nearly 600 yards. Jones left the game against the Bengals at one point but was able to return and it looks likely that he will play on Thursday for the divisional game with the Bucs.
Hester has been off to a solid start despite having just one catch against the Bengals, as he has six catches for 101 yards already this season, totally beating out his zero line from last season. Douglas is a more consistent option, but Hester of course can always break one off in the return game. Douglas comes in with 10 catches for 107 yards on the season and that included four catches for 38 yards in the loss to the Bengals. Douglas and Hester are options in deeper leagues and owners of White would be wise to keep an eye on the injury report heading into Thursday.