Daniel Shirey-USA TODAY Sports
In the most sarcastic tone possible, hats off to the Atlanta Falcons for how they handled Roddy White‘s injury this season.
White suffered a high-ankle sprain before the regular season began and instead of keeping him out until he was healthy, the Falcons elected to send him to battle week after week. The result? More injuries and complications to go along with absolutely no effectiveness on the field. How it went on like that for five whole weeks is beyond me, but thankfully the coaches finally came to their senses and decided to give White some time to heal after their bye week.
The rest seems to have done wonders as White said he’s feeling much better and claims to once again be able to run at full speed, plant his feet and cut properly. If that’s true, we might be seeing the Roddy of old pretty soon.
White’s numbers this season are enough to make a person physically ill. He has 14 receptions for 129 yards and no touchdowns in five appearances. Quite obviously, the sickening stats are a direct result of him playing at far less than 100 percent. If he is indeed healthy, there’s really no reason to believe he won’t start to put up the kind of numbers we’ve grown accustomed to seeing from him.
Not only that, but with Julio Jones done for the season, White should draw the majority of looks from Matt Ryan going forward. Harry Douglas has been the prime target in the Falcons’ offense for the last few weeks, but that’s purely a function of him having been the only healthy receiver with any real experience playing with Ryan. Opposing defenses have also been suffocating Tony Gonzalez, so Douglas has truly been the only viable option in the passing game lately.
The Falcons have a brutal matchup this week as they take on the Seattle Seahawks. It’s an extremely important game for prospective buyers to watch because White is expected to start. It’s entirely possible that he’ll have another dud because Seattle’s secondary is lights-out, but what you should be paying attention to is whether or not he actually does appear to be almost fully healthy.
If he looks good out there, it’s go-time — whether he has a good game or not. His fantasy value is the lowest it’s ever been so if you can get him on the cheap, I strongly recommend going for it. The Falcons’ defense is dreadful, so Ryan will be throwing plenty the rest of the way. White could pay major dividends down the stretch.
Dan Freeman is a Fantasy football writer for www.RantSports.com. Follow him on Twitter @DanFreeman88.
