Coming into the 2024 campaign, the Falcons receiver tandem of Drake London and Darnell Mooney didn’t garner any recognition on the national scale as one of the NFL’s best duos; a lot of people even said the club overpaid for Mooney. That’s changed.
Miami’s Tyreek Hill and Jaylen Waddle, San Francisco’s Deebo Samuel and Brandon Aiyuk, Cinncinatti’s Ja’Marr Chase and Tee Higgins, Philadelphia’s A.J. Brown and DeVonta Smith, and others were considered the best wideout tandems in the league.
All we can do is look at the stats, and the Falcons duo has to be considered among the league’s best through five games. London ranks 11th in football with 354 yards to go along with 32 receptions and three scores. Mooney ranks 14th with 330 yards on 24 catches and three touchdowns as well.
Houston’s duo of Nico Collins and Stefon Diggs are certainly hard to argue against, with Collins leading the league in receiving (567 yards) and Diggs ranking 15th (315 yards) behind Mooney.
San Fran’s duo is also still in the conversation, but it’s Jauan Jennings (377 yards) and Aiyuk (314 yards) that are leading the Niners in receiving. A couple of division rivals should also be considered, with Chris Godwin ranking 8th (386 yards) and Mike Evans ranking 28th (276 yards).
Of course, circumstances matter. The Dolphins pass catching duo of Hill and Waddle has been held back by quarterback play since Tua Tagovailoa has been out with another concussion. A.J. Brown has missed several games this year, too.
And these rankings should be fluid. With Nico Collins set to miss at least four games on the Texans’ injured reserve, the Houston duo should fall down the boards.
If the Falcons offense continues to build momentum this weekend against the Panthers following Kirk Cousins‘ 500-yard performance last week against the Buccaneers, we could start to talk about Darnell Mooney and Drake London as the best duo in football, at least by production standards.
