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I read somewhere yesterday he's only ran 15 routes out of the TE position the entire season.
Falcons tight end Kyle Pitts trending in the right direction
Pitts had a 1,000-yard season as a rookie in 2021, but was hampered by injuries last season.www.espn.com
Of his 140 routes run, according to ESPN Stats & Information, 47 came lined up in the slot on the left side (with 10 targets and 10 receptions), 37 came in the slot on the right side (eight targets, five receptions), 22 were lined up wide left (three targets, no receptions) and 19 came wide right (seven targets, three receptions).
Pitts has run routes on 15 plays out of the tight end spot with only three targets and no catches.
Nobody is pessimistic on Pitts. There is a difference between tempering expectations and being pessimistic. I just want to make that clear in regards to the posts that I have made here. I never once said he’s a bad player or that hes incapable of producing. Before anybody tries to come at me or pound their chest the next time he actually does produce— I want to make my position clear.
I doubt it matters. Pitts is stuck in TE no mans land. I'd keep trotting him out there unless you have a top 5-6 option and hope you hit a ceiling game.
VERY good. Excited to see him with TH.
And possibly no London.
Time for Jonnu to light it up
Maybe? More likely it just means more targets for Jefferson as well as anyone not named Pitts. Can't be having their best playmakers actually make plays, that's crazy talk.
Good insight. If this were a one-off situation where Pitts was taken out of the game plan to the benefit of Jonnu, one could just chalk it up to scheme. Unfortunately, this is a season long phenomenon with Pitts - tremendous athlete, but not a particularly good receiver.
Yeah not saying your comments about Pitts are not valid. He may need a lot of work still on the finer points of his game.
of passes when going against zone coverage. He was neither big nor fast just smart and made a short career out of being the best (one metric) zone coverage TE.
I traded him for Treyveon Henderson Ohio St. in a DEVY league and thought it was pretty much an even trade.
QB matters and they are a running team. Things can change quickly in the NFL, but I get the panic.
Right now he's OJ Howard.
Delanie, Jonnu, Firkser, and maybe Hooper were successful in this running offense. It's him
Maybe he is and he's wasting too much time blocking when he's supposed to bump his man.
From what I’m reading here that may not help if Pitts is a lousy route runner.
Seems more and more like it’s him. While the conservative offense isn’t doing him a lot of favors. those excuses seem like wishful thinking.
At this point in his career—he has a relatively small sample size where he was putting up eye opening numbers. For the majority of his NFL career, he’s regressed greatly from that. At what point is it fair to call the short part of his career when he was putting up numbers the outlier? Even when he was a pro-bowl TE—he was doing so in a manner that is hard to sustain for fantasy purposes. He hasn’t shown a propensity to catch TD’s in one of the most TD dependent positions in fantasy football. Again—I will repeat what I said in this thread a few times. I think he’s a good player—but he’s a player that is a giant pain in the butt for fantasy owners—and those that do roster him really need to temper their expectations.
I don’t think he really played TE - at least in the true sense of the position - in his rookie year. More of a glorified WR in which he was the main passing option in what had been a pass friendly offense. Fast forward the past few years, and the team drafted an alpha WR and then a stud RB, and now his role has changed to learn the finer points of the position beyond pass catching. It’s clear he isn’t very successful at it to date.
In other words, Atlanta spent a top10 pick on Pitts to be a receiving weapon in a pass friendly offense. Pitts excelled in this role, threatening the rookie TE receiving yardage record held by hall of famer Mike Ditka. It seemed Pitts was as advertised.
The Falcons have over achieved as a team this year and last year with Pitts playing a reduced role. They were picked to be one of the worst teams in football last year—and they were highly competitive until the past couple weeks of the season. They are currently in first place in their division right now. Professional football teams don’t care about your fantasy teams. What we want as the fantasy community doesn’t always translate to what happens in reality football. In the “historically good” tight end season that Pitts had in 2021–the Falcons finished third place out of the four teams in the NFC South. Let’s not make it seem like the Falcons have somehow regressed since Pitts production has decreased. If anything—they’ve managed to stay more competitive and relevant.
Excellent questions - wish I knew the answer.
In 2021 when Pitts had his historic season—only 2 teams in the NFL gave up more points than the Falcons. They were playing from behind a lot, and when they weren’t playing from behind, they were forced to compete in some high scoring games. This season—coming into this week they are ranked 14 in how many points they have allowed. They went from being almost the worst team in the league in regards to points allowed to being middle of the pack. This year they are ranked 18–but teams 14-18 all basically give up 21-21.9 points per game. The way this team stays competitive is by keeping the scores low, running clock, and going out of its way to avoid shootouts. It sounds like you are in a dynasty format—and I don’t blame you for maintaining hope for guys like London and Pitts. They are clearly talented—nobody is disputing that. With that said—I do think that this whole mindset that Pitts not going off is somehow horrid for the Falcons franchise needs to be addressed. So far—the Falcons have been a better and more competitive team by playing better defense and limiting their passing game. Unless they get a stud quarterback—it’s hard to see them abandoning this strategy.
Yup, this is basically an L for the “talent over situation” crowd (as well as for us Pitts owners).
That actually has not changed. He runs almost every route from out wide or the slot. Read this exact stat several weeks ago, was running about two routes a game as an inline TE.
