2. Kyle Pitts, TE
The offense remains the strength of Atlanta’s roster with receiver Drake London and Bijan Robinson leading the cast of weapons for Penix. The Falcons also have a pair of supplementary receivers in Darnell Mooney and Ray-Ray McCloud to make life easier as Penix enters his first full year as a starter.
This is all great, but the Falcons probably can’t keep everyone. That means someone will have to go and it could be tight end Kyle Pitts.
Pitts was the fourth overall pick in the 2021 NFL Draft and was hailed as a generational prospect after a Pro Bowl rookie season where he caught 68 passes for 1,026 yards and a touchdown. But the Florida product was limited to 10 games in his sophomore season and has caught 100 passes for 1,269 yards and seven touchdowns over the past two seasons.
There are a tone of excuses for why Pitts hasn’t lived up to his potential. The quarterback play in Atlanta has been abysmal, going from the back end of Matt Ryan’s career to Desmond Ridder to another aging quarterback in Cousins. There’s also Arthur Blank’s terrible playcalling, which held back several of the Falcons’ weapons from reaching their potential.
But keeping Pitts would be the same mistake many of your friends are making in their fantasy football league. Pitts posted a career-low 41.9% success rate when targeted last season, which is defined as the rate a player picks up 40% of yards needed on first down, 60% on second down and 100% on third or fourth down. The 24-year-old also graded 44th out of 74 qualifying tight ends according to Pro Football Focus last season, which is notable considering Charlie Woerner was right behind him at 45th.
Pitts has a vote of confidence from Penix, who wants all the weapons he can have entering next season. But with a $10.8 million cap hit in the final year of his contract, the Falcons could get similar production for a much lower cost. It could shuffle that money to an area where it’s needed and give Pitts a new team heading into next season.