Fantasy football projections, Week 4: Falcons-Vikings featuring Matt Ryan, Julio Jones and Teddy Bridgewater

The Week 4 matchup between the Atlanta Falcons and the Minnesota Vikings features a high-octane passing game a team going through changes. We've got the fantasy projections for you courtesy of numberFire.

Quarterback Matt Ryan left the team's Week 3 game against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in the third quarter, but not before completing 21 passes for 286 yards and three touchdowns. The Falcons could afford to do that given that the team was up 49-0 at the time. It also means Ryan has had a lot of time to prepare for the Minnesota Vikings, a team that has been fairly good at limiting the fantasy output of passers this season. What Matty Ice does have going for him is that the Vikings' offense is in a state of disarray these days, meaning that as the game progresses, Ryan could be taking advantage of a tired secondary unit.

Whether the Vikings' pass defense is tired or not, Julio Jones will probably be in for a second straight week of monster numbers. He scorched the Bucs for nine receptions, 161 receiving yards and a pair of touchdowns last week and the Vikings don't really have a shutdown player than can stop a special player like Jones. He's currently averaging more than 120 yards per game this season to go with three scores and there's little reason Jones won't pay dividends for his fantasy owners again this week.

With veteran quarterback Matt Cassel (broken foot) on injured reserve and out for the season, the Minnesota Vikings will give rookie Teddy Bridgewater his first-career NFL start on Sunday. He did manage to complete 12 of 20 pass attempts last week for 150 yards while filling in for Cassel. Bridgewater also exhibited a greater ability to move around the pocket than Cassel and that should help him given that the Vikings' offensive line has been in tough to start the year. Although no one can predict how a rookie is going to do in his first start, Bridgewater is up against a Falcons secondary that isn't the most intimidating, so he should be able to post a respectable yardage total.

Bridgewater will likely get to throw the ball a lot this week, given the Vikings don't have much of a running game still without Adrian Peterson and will likely be playing from behind against Atlanta. That means Cordarrelle Patterson could be in for some sneaky good numbers. He had trouble getting on the same page as Cassel in the first three weeks of the season but the offensive coordinator is committed to getting him the ball anyway they can. If Patterson can manage to grab more than four passes in the game, his fantasy impact will be a nice surprise to the fantasy owners that take a gamble and start him against the Falcons.