When the Falcons take the field at Mercedes-Benz Stadium to open the 2025 NFL season, one player who will be looking to pick up where he left off is fourth-year wide receiver Drake London. The former eighth-overall pick had a breakout year in 2024, vaulting himself into the upper echelon of receivers by catching 100 passes for 1,271 yards and nine touchdowns. He ranked fourth in the league in receiving yards and was the first Falcon to reach the century mark in catches since Julio Jones pulled down 113 passes in 2018.
London has quietly impressed over the course of his young career, ranking 15th in receptions (241), 17th in receiving yards (3,042) and 20th in yards per route run (2.22) since his debut in 2022. Throughout the draft process, the 6-foot-4, 215-pound London was compared to Tampa Bay's perennial Pro Bowl receiver, Mike Evans. He has certainly done his best Evans impression against the Buccaneers.
Through six meetings over the course of his first three seasons, London has tallied 569 yards on 42 receptions with one touchdown. Since 2022, the California native has had the most yards and receptions of any player against the Buccaneers. Additionally, three of London's six career 100-yard games have come against Tampa Bay. This includes two games with more than 150 receiving yards.
Using Microsoft 365 Copilot to comb through a mountain of statistics from TruMedia (over 10,000 rows of data when exported to Excel), we can see London's 569 receiving yards against the Bucs are the fifth-most by any player against a single opponent over the last three seasons. During that span, eight players have put up at least 500 yards against a single opponent, all doing so against division foes.
London has been a go-to receiver for his quarterbacks when playing the Bucs, catching 42 of his 52 targets over six games. According to TruMedia, he is the only player to record an 80% reception percentage with 30-or-more targets and 10+ air yards per target against a single opponent since 2022.
Matchup to Watch
London made steady progress over his first two seasons, but Falcons offensive coordinator Zac Robinson seems to have unlocked the receiver's potential by moving him around the formation. In 2022 and 2023, London was overwhelmingly utilized as an outside receiver, aligning in the slot 214 times across two seasons. In 2024, he aligned in the slot on 209 of 535 routes. Comparatively, London ran 39% of his routes out of the slot last season versus 28% over his first two seasons combined. That increase illustrates how Robinson moved London around to create favorable matchups for receiver and quarterback alike.
According to Next Gen Stats, London had the highest target share (34.9%) in the NFL and had the sixth most receiving yards (555) when running routes from the slot last season. He took another step forward as quarterback Michael Penix Jr. leaned heavily on London over the final three games of last season. The rookie signal-caller targeted London on a league-high 38.2% of pass plays and London's 0.52 expected points added per target ranked third in the NFL during that stretch.
What does all this mean for Sunday's matchup? Tampa Bay allowed the highest yards per play average (9.2) and the third-most receiving yards per game (90.7) to receivers when aligned in the slot last season. If Tampa Bay, which blitzed at the second-highest rate (38.9%) in the league last season, continues its aggressive ways, London should get 1-on-1 opportunities.
