FLOWERY BRANCH, Ga. — Lost amid the quarterback conversations and Bijan Robinson celebrations is a player who deserves admiration of his own.

Drake London, the fierce and physical playmaker atop the Atlanta Falcons' depth chart at wide receiver, is off to the best start of his career. Through five games, London has caught 27 passes for 488 yards—the most he's ever had in the first five weeks of a season. His 18.1 yards per reception are a career-best to this point, and it's not particularly close.

"He's playing at an extremely high level—like, everything he's doing." Falcons head coach Kevin Stefanski said. "He's playing a physical brand of football. He's difficult to defend in all areas of the field."

London has led Atlanta's wide receivers in yardage in each game this season, and he has the fourth-most yards at this position across the league. Since Michael Penix Jr.'s return to the field, however, London has reached a new level.

From Weeks 3-5, he leads all NFL players with 408 receiving yards, nearly 100 more than the next closest player, Raiders tight end Brock Bowers.

"[Offensive coordinator Tommy] Rees is doing a heck of a job of marrying up the pass and the run," London said of his success this season. "It's funny, I haven't been in that open space in a long, long time. People make fun of it and stuff, but it was like, it was a shock, you know? But definitely getting used to it now. And, again, just trying to do my job to the best of my ability. If it's there, then I'm going to go take it."

The Falcons are finding open space for London a lot this year; he has 221 yards after the catch this season, more than any other non-running back.

For much of his career, the former basketball star has been featured as a downfield leaper, adept at making acrobatic catches by jumping over defenders. Now, he's catching passes with room to run, allowing him to use his physical gifts with the ball in his hands.

"He's excellent with the ball in his hands," Stefanski said. "So, we'll continue to find ways for him to affect the game, which I think he's done in really all the ball games to date."

Atlanta's offense is in its first season with Rees as coordinator, and, over the last three weeks, it's been among the league's very best.

The Falcons have a 50% offensive success rate since Week 3, according to Next Gen Stats, which is the top mark in the NFL. A play is deemed a success if it picks up at least half the needed yards on first and second down—5 yards on first down and 3 yards on second down, for example—and the remaining yards needed on third down.

It's a good way to measure offensive consistency from play to play, and it shows the Falcons are finding their stride.

"The fun part about this whole thing is that we're nowhere near our ceiling," London said "And I truthfully believe that."

London said that while the loss to the Ravens hurt, there's a collective motivation to identify and correct the issues that led to that result "so they won't ever happen again."

That mentality has been echoed many times in Stefanski's first season. Coaches and players are devoted to the process, understanding that is what they can control to achieve the desired result.

"The better we play, the more we should want to execute at a higher level," Rees explained. "The more we should double down on what we're doing and continue to focus on our process and let the results happen. I think when you get focused on the results, so much of the process can become flawed.

"Even after a good play, we'll point out that, 'Hey, the process here is flawed. I know it resulted in maybe a 7-yard run, but the process is flawed. So, we need to correct this because at some point it's going to bite us.'"

Dedicating themselves to the process has yielded positive results thus far. The NFL season is long, though, and has a history of humbling any group that rests on its laurels.

London doesn't expect that from this group.

"We're striving for greatness. We're striving to get better every day, every hour, and just come out there and be ready for Sunday's game against a very, very good Chicago team."