Atlanta Falcons: 3 players who saw their stock rise in Week 8

3. Austin Hooper, TE

The Falcons spent a third-round pick in 2016 on Austin Hooper out of Stanford. The idea was to get themselves a pass catcher out of the position like they had when Tony Gonzales was sporting the Dirty Bird on the side of his head.

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Of course, no one ever expected Hooper to be of the same caliber as Gonzales, a sure-fire first ballot Hall of Fame player. What they did expect though was him to provide some stability to the position.

So far, he hasn’t really stood out as spectacular, but he’s shown flashes. On Sunday, he continued to do that and was a big reason Atlanta was able to escape New York with a win. Hooper had 47 yards on four receptions and had an early touchdown to help keep the Falcons in the game despite some of their miscues.

This all came following his worst game of the season when he had just one reception for six yards. On the year now, Hooper has brought in 22 passes for 295 yards and has two touchdown grabs. His play on Sunday proved that the Falcons can make teams pay for focusing too much on their big play guys like wide receiver Julio Jones or Mohamed Sanu.