Tevin Coleman, a beginning of week 2 with Devonta Freeman

Devonta Freeman was ruled out for Week 2, so Tevin Coleman is a safe start for his fantasy football owners.

In the past three seasons, plus one game, the Atlanta Falcons have offered fantastic soccer owners two viable rounds in a row. Devonta Freeman is No. 1 on the depth map, but Tevin Coleman was a nice complementary piece.

Freeman left the first week against the Philadelphia Eagles with a knee injury and missed the practice session all week. So it's not so shocking that Falcons head coach Dan Quinn told reporters in Freeman will not play Sunday against the Carolina Panthers.

Coleman recovered a fantastic day with a quick touchdown against the Eagles after Freeman left the game. But he will start Sunday with rookie Ito Smith as the main substitute. The Panthers held Ezekiel Elliott 69 yards and one touchdown on 15 carries and three catches (on four targets) for 17 yards last week. So it's a tough game for Coleman, the Falcons game and the Atlanta offense as a whole. But the promise of volume raises the fantastic floor of Coleman.

In three games without Freeman, Coleman averaged 19 runs and 83.3 yards per game with three aggregate scores. That's good for about 15 fantastic points per game, depending on the standard PPR score (14.8) or total (15.2 points per game).

Coleman is owned by 90% of Yahoo leagues and 91.9% of ESPN leagues. So going over the waiver to add it is not really an option (although it's worth checking to make sure it's not available in your league).

Freeman is not expected to face a long-term absence. But it is at least a bit worrisome that extra time between games, after opening Thursday night's match, did not help him clinch a dubious medal in Friday's injury report.

But for Coleman's fancy owners, who often have to struggle to know when to put it in a range and where (RB2? Flex?), There's no problem in Week 2. It's a RB2 legitimate, even in a difficult match, with the expectation of 20-25 touches.