When Kyle Pitts was selected fourth overall in the 2021 NFL Draft by the Falcons, it wasn't a terrible pick. In fact, it was greeted with a lot of excitement and anticipation. The big, game-breaking receiving threat at tight end was a mismatch nightmare at Florida, but he was able to fend off college linebackers and overwhelm muscular defensive backs at the catch point to become a defensive coordinator. had He has to be responsible for every play so that every play isn't completely wiped out by him.
Expect something similar in the NFL. Pitts came from the same family as a long list of legendary receiving tight ends, including Antonio Gates, Greg Olsen, Travis Kelce, and Jimmy Graham. All were mediocre blockers, but that didn't matter because they caused havoc in the passing game.
Three years later, there's no way to sugar coat it. Kyle Pitts is a bust. Excuses for his lack of productivity have been exhausted, it has become impossible to justify his lack of productivity, and now Pitts finds himself in an NFL that has changed dramatically in the time since he was drafted. I noticed that he was a strange man.
What exactly went wrong? How much of this was the Falcons' fault and how much was Pitts' fault? Is there any hope for him to turn things around?
wrong place at wrong time
A big part of the hype when Pitts was drafted by the Falcons was the pedigree he was assumed to have. Newly hired head coach Arthur Smith had just served as offensive coordinator and tight ends coach for the Titans, and his offense was centered around tight end receiving.
This allowed Delanie Walker to put up big numbers for the Titans with Smith as the TE coach, then as offensive coordinator to disrupt a strong run game with Jonnu Smith at tight end. The natural assumption was that Smith's ability to coax production out of tight ends, combined with Pitts' unrealistic physical attributes, would create an offensive monster.
Problem: Pitts couldn't do anything Arthur Smith actually wanted to do with a tight end.
The problem is, while everyone (myself included) saw big receiving numbers and tight end success in isolation, Pitts actually had a lot of success with tight ends like Arthur Smith. I didn't realize that I wasn't playing. Throughout the Delanie Walker and Jonnu Smith eras at Tennessee, their average depth of target (ADOT) on pass plays was between 5.0 and 6.0 yards. This is because Smith preferred a player who could function as an inline blocker in the run game, and on passing downs he wanted a player who could break through the line of scrimmage, curve inside, and make contested catches against linebackers. That's what I meant.
In short, Smith preferred a strong, classic tight end to be a third or fourth option to move the chains, rather than a vertical threat like Kyle Pitts.
This was a terrible strategy for Pitts. We knew before he was drafted that he was a really bad blocker, but his entire game was predicated on the idea of flowing further downfield and getting behind the linebackers. ADOT isn't tracked at the college level, but most of the time Pitts made the catch 14-17 yards downfield and was contested only by safeties who could easily surpass him in size.
Smith's solution to this conundrum was to split the difference and take both Pitts and himself out of their comfort zones. Pitts' average ADOT during the Arthur Smith era was 12.0 yards, more than double the average ADOT that Smith used at Tennessee. This didn't mesh with the offense at all, and although Pitts was running deeper, he was rarely targeted as he was primarily running into linebacker traffic. And he didn't have the hands or toughness to overwhelm NFL linebackers like he did in college.
Arthur Smith left after three years of mediocrity and disappointment for the Falcons. Certainly, this will be an opportunity for Pitts to get started “right” with a new offensive coordinator. There was just one problem with this assumption…
The new Falcons even worse For Kyle Pitts
When Raheem Morris came over from the Rams and brought in offensive coordinator Zach Robinson, the assumption was that the new OC would implement Sean McVay's system – which they mostly have. You know what goes wrong with McVay's West Coast offense? A long, deep, tight end route.
The Rams used TE Tyler Higbee effectively during their Super Bowl appearance, but he had an ADOT of 5.3 during the 2021 championship season. The Rams have a very similar offensive feel to the Arthur Smith-led Titans when it comes to how they use their TEs, needing strong in-line blockers to strengthen the run game and competing under the linebackers. I used them to play catch.
We've seen Pitts being asked to do this in 2024, and it fails dramatically. Pitts' ADOT this season was 8.5, the lowest of his career, showing that he can't make any impact in the receiving game. Pitts doesn't feel comfortable playing catch against players he doesn't feel physically dominant, which leads to a lot of drops.
This will give you the real meaning of the problem…
Kyle Pitts is really bad
At a certain point, there are only so many tricks and good excuses you can make for a player's lack of productivity. Is Kyle Pitts actually in an offensive system that can't use him? absolutely. Starring Kyle Pitts zero Are there any signs that he's trying to change his game to make it work better? Also, yes.
Pitts' long walks and slow ramp-up to top speed can't be helped. That's who he is as an athlete. But his lazy and disastrous route execution doesn't help matters. Pitts has been a subpar route runner since coming to the NFL, and it's frankly surprising that he hasn't shown any improvement in this area since entering the league.
His cuts are slow and plodding, and he takes too many staggering steps at the beginning of his routes when changing direction, making it very easy for defenders to know where he's going. When Pitts is running at full speed, he rounds the cut without making any of the sudden movements needed to deceive defenders.
This all comes out as a really disgusting separation statistic. According to NFL Next Gen Stats, his weekly turnover rates in 2024 are:
Week 1 vs. steelers:3.22 yards
Week 2 vs. Eagles: 3.09 yards
Week 3 vs. Chiefs: 1.42 yards
Week 4 vs. Saints: 1.07 yards
This represents an average route distance of 2.2 yards in 2024. The average distance in the NFL is 2.93 yards, which is especially bad considering tight ends routinely run farther than wide receivers due to their position. For example, the Lions' Sam LaPorta doesn't have Pitts' athletic receiving characteristics and is an elite in-line blocking TE who has generated 4.26 yards of separation this season. LaPorta has an ADOT of 3.6 this season, which is 2 yards more than Pitts despite having 5 fewer yards than Pitts.
This is because Laporta's short route running is much more effective than Pitts, who is unable to create separation due to his lazy route running, despite being targeted more than twice as far downfield. It means something.
Is there hope for Kyle Pitts?
Not in Atlanta. For Pitts to work, the Falcons would have to completely revamp their offense just to feature him, but it's just not worth squeezing that juice.
It would be easy to say, “Pitts could thrive on this.'' dolphin” or “Pitts would be a good fit to replace Travis Kelce on the Chiefs.” But in both cases, it’s unclear whether he has the work ethic to make it work. Pitts' lazy route running and slow cuts have no place anywhere in the NFL at this point.
Running bad routes leads to bad separation, but this player doesn't have Gronk-like hands to make stupid contested catches. Pitts plays small despite being 6-foot-6 and weighing 248 pounds, which completely negates any advantage he had entering the NFL.
Just ask Sam Darnold, every player has a chance to reinvigorate their career — but as it stands, it's impossible to imagine an NFL fit for Pitts. The league is increasingly becoming a run-first league, requiring tight ends to do the dirty work in the trenches and compete for the ball in contests down the field.
Sadly, Kyle Pitts doesn't have that dog.
