Drake London Wants to Take a Leap. Atlanta Falcons Say ‘Sky’s the Limit’

FLOWERY BRANCH, Ga. — Atlanta Falcons receiver Drake London sits on the side of a small grass hill on the outer edge of the IBM Performance Field, phone raised to his ear while his legs are sprawled in front of him.

It’s June 11, and London is absorbing his final few moments in Flowery Branch before heading home to California for the Falcons’ six-week summer break. He appears relaxed, with an air of west coast cool to his mannerisms.

And while London, who grew up around an hour northwest of Los Angeles and attended the University of Southern California, will cherish the California beaches and Hollywood breeze, he’s entering the getaway with an all-business mindset.

“In my eyes, I think this is when the season truly starts,” London said June 11. “How I’m looking at it, we’re on go right now. Once I get back home, it’s full go.”

For London, OTAs and minicamp served as the start of the ramp-up period, an important time to form chemistry with quarterback Kirk Cousins and a plethora of the new names in Atlanta’s receiver room, including Darnell Mooney, Ray-Ray McCloud and Rondale Moore.

But perhaps most importantly, it was the beginning of what London hopes will be a season marked by him taking the next leap as a player – a goal in which he already has a mental blueprint of how to achieve.

“Be an all-around receiver,” London said. “Be somebody who can take over games and just be a great teammate overall. I think I can a step up in a lot of those things, and I think I should.”

Since being drafted No. 8 overall in 2022, London has been the Falcons’ top wideout, leading the team in targets, catches and receiving yards in each of his two professional campaigns.

The 23-year-old London has found ways to produce despite being stricken by subpar quarterback play.

In 2022, he caught a franchise rookie record 72 passes for 866 yards and four touchdowns. He followed suit with 69 receptions for 905 yards and two scores in 2023 while missing one game due to a groin injury.

London has been on the receiving end of passes from three quarterbacks – Marcus Mariota, Desmond Ridder and Taylor Heinicke – who are slated to be backups Week 1 this fall.

It’s a different story this time around. Cousins is a four-time Pro Bowler with a career completion rate of 66.9% and nearly 40,000 passing yards under his belt. He’s drawn praise from his new teammates for his leadership and pinpoint accuracy.

London is fond of Cousins off the field, noting he embodies the personality of a father of two but is a quality individual. Along with Mooney and tight end Kyle Pitts, London and Cousins grew their chemistry on a trip to visit former NFL head coach Jon Gruden in Tampa before the start of OTAs.

And as London has spent more time around Cousins, the more confident he’s become. The same is true for Cousins when evaluating the 6-4, 219-pound London’s skill set.

“Just a very natural receiver, really friendly target,” Cousins said near the end of OTAs. “He kind of just looks open to your eye as a quarterback because of his size, the way he runs routes, his catch radius, his natural hands, his fluidity. And he can run the whole route tree, so you can ask him to do a lot.

“And he’s tough – he’s a competitor.”

Cousins added London is a very talented and capable player who he feels fortunate to work with, and he and sees London and Mooney being a big part of Atlanta’s offense this year.

And for as much as London appears likely to capitalize from the signing of Cousins, the street goes both ways – and Mooney thinks London makes Cousins’s life easier.

“He can really just throw the ball up to Drake and he’s going to bully the guy,” Mooney said.

London’s past production suggests as much – but when Falcons receivers coach Ike Hilliard first spoke with reporters in February, he said he wanted more from the former USC standout.

It wasn’t a slight, Hilliard said, but rather an understanding of the potential London has.

“There’s so much more to be had from a guy that’s extremely talented like Drake, and he knows that,” Hilliard told FalconsSI on May 22. “He wants any and every piece of constructive criticism there is, any nugget to help him get better. Any ball thrown his way, he wants it to be his.”

London finds himself in perhaps the best situation he’s been in, surrounded by a true No. 2 receiver in Mooney for the first time in his young career and with a receivers coach in Hilliard who has played the position at the sport’s highest level.

Beyond Cousins and the receiver room, Atlanta is expected to be tailored more to the aerial attack under offensive coordinator Zac Robinson, with London saying the ball will be in the air often in 2024.

The Falcons’ front office, which was largely unaffected by the coaching staff change in January, has seen firsthand London’s moments of brilliance and high level of play. The new staff, including Hilliard, Robinson and head coach Raheem Morris, want to turn those flashes into the new normal.

“I think everyone internally knew and know how talented he is,” Hilliard said. “We’re just looking forward to hopefully, offensively, giving him more opportunities to touch the ball and kind of show the world who he really is.”

London took a step closer to showing his true self last season. He had his two most productive games as a pro in 2023, with a 10-catch, 172-yard performance against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and a nine-catch, 125-yard showing versus the Washington Commanders highlighting his season.

But the Falcons lost both of those games, an underlying fact of a startling trend that permeates throughout London’s career. He has 10 games with at least 70 receiving yards, and the Falcons have just a 3-7 record in those affairs while London has only one touchdown to his name.

In London’s three least productive games – contests in which he had zero, two and eight receiving yards – the Falcons are 3-0, though two of those victories came against teams that ultimately earned the No. 1 overall draft in the 2022 Chicago Bears and 2023 Carolina Panthers and the other against the 2023 New York Jets, who played Tim Boyle and Trevor Siemian at quarterback.

But such results, both in terms of team performance and London’s contributions to them, appear poised to change.

Team expectations are lofty for Atlanta this fall, with the addition of Cousins making the path to winning the NFC South much more reasonable. And as the Falcons soar, London’s stock figures to do the same.

Expectations for London in 2024? High – certainly from those within the organization, but perhaps nobody has higher hopes than himself.

London wants to reach a new level. How high the ceiling extends is anyone’s guess, and Hilliard isn’t putting a cap on the production and accolades London can achieve this season.

“The sky’s the limit, man,” Hilliard said.