When Kyle Pitts was chosen by the Falcons at No. 4 general within the 2021 NFL Draft, it wasn’t a horrible decide. In truth, it was met with numerous pleasure and promise. The massive, game-breaking receiving risk at tight finish was a mismatch nightmare at Florida who was in a position to breeze by school linebackers, out-muscle defensive backs on the catch level, and turn into a participant defensive coordinators had to account for on each play, lest they get completely obliterated by him.
The expectation within the NFL can be extra of the identical. Pitts was lower from the identical fabric as a protracted record of legendary receiving tight ends like Antonio Gates, Greg Olsen, Travis Kelce, and Jimmy Graham. All guys who have been mediocre blockers, but it surely didn’t matter due to the chaos they created within the passing recreation.
Three years later and there’s no approach of sugar coating it: Kyle Pitts is a bust. The reasons for his lack of manufacturing have run out, it’s turn into unimaginable to justify his lack of manufacturing, and now Pitts finds himself as an odd man out in an NFL which has modified drastically within the time since he was drafted.
What precisely went unsuitable? How a lot of that is on the Falcons and the way a lot is due to Pitts? Is there any hope he can flip it throughout?
The unsuitable place on the unsuitable time
A big a part of the hype when it got here to Pitts being drafted by the Falcons was the assumed pedigree he was strolling into. Newly-hired head coach Arthur Smith was recent off a stint as each offensive coordinator and tight ends coach with the Titans, the place his offense closely featured tight finish receiving as a staple.
This led to Delanie Walker placing up enormous numbers for the Titans with Smith as TE coach, then as an offensive coordinator he punctuated a powerful operating recreation with Jonnu Smith at tight finish. The pure assumption was that Smith would marry his potential to get manufacturing out of tight ends with Pitts’ unreal bodily traits to create an offensive monster.
Downside: Pitts couldn’t do a single factor that Arthur Smith really wished a good finish to do.
See, the difficulty is that whereas everybody checked out huge receiving numbers and tight finish success in isolation (myself included), we failed to comprehend that Pitts didn’t really play something like an Arthur Smith tight finish. Throughout each the Delanie Walker and Jonnu Smith eras in Tennessee their common depth of goal (ADOT) on passing performs sat between 5.0 and 6.0 yards. This meant that Smith preferred gamers who may function in-line blockers within the run recreation, and on passing downs he wished guys who may get previous the road of scrimmage, carve inside, and make contested catches in opposition to linebackers.
In brief: Smith most well-liked sturdy, basic tight ends who have been third or fourth choices to maneuver the chains, not vertical threats like Kyle Pitts.
This was a horrific scheme match for Pitts. Not solely is he a very horrible blocker, which we knew earlier than he was drafted, however his whole recreation was predicated on the concept of drifting downfield additional and getting behind linebackers. Whereas ADOT isn’t tracked on the school stage, for essentially the most half Pitts was making catches 14-to-17 yards downfield, contested solely by safeties the place he may simply out-match them with dimension.
Smith’s resolution to this conundrum was to separate the distinction and take each Pitts, and himself out of their consolation zone. Pitts’ common ADOT below Arthur Smith was 12.0 yards, over double what Smith utilized in Tennessee. This by no means actually meshed with the offense, and whereas Pitts was operating deeper, he was not often focused as a result of he was primarily operating into linebacker visitors — and didn’t have the fingers or toughness to dominate NFL linebackers the way in which he did in school.
Arthur Smith was gone after three years of mediocre manufacturing and Falcons disappointment. Absolutely this could be the chance for Pitts for use “appropriately” with a brand new offensive coordinator. There was only one downside with this assumption …
The brand new Falcons are even worse for Kyle Pitts
When Raheem Morris got here from the Rams and introduced offensive coordinator Zac Robinson there was the belief that the brand new OC would set up Sean McVay’s system — which they largely have. what doesn’t work in McVay’s West Coast Offense? Lengthy creating, deep tight finish routes.
The Rams used TE Tyler Higbee to nice impact throughout the Rams’ Tremendous Bowl run, however his ADOT was 5.3 throughout the 2021 championship season. The Rams had very related offensive sensibilities to Arthur Smith’s Titans when it got here to TE utilization, needing sturdy in-line blockers to bolster the run recreation, then utilizing them to make contested catches below the linebackers.
We’ve seen Pitts be requested to do that in 2024 and it’s failing dramatically. Pitts’ ADOT this season is 8.5, the bottom of his profession — and he’s proven an lack of ability to make any affect within the receiving recreation in consequence. Pitts just isn’t snug making contested catches in opposition to gamers he doesn’t really feel bodily dominant in opposition to, and that is leading to numerous drops.
The brings us to the true meat and potatoes of the issue …
Kyle Pitts is simply horrible
In some unspecified time in the future there are solely so many scheme and match excuses you may make for a participant’s lack of manufacturing. Is Kyle Pitts in an offensive system that may’t actually use him? Completely. Has Kyle Pitts displaying zero indicators of attempting to alter his recreation to make it work? Additionally, sure.
Pitts’ lengthy gait and gradual ramp time to prime velocity can’t actually be helped. That’s simply who he’s as an athlete. Nonetheless, his lazy, woeful route operating isn’t serving to something. Pitts has been a sub-par route runner since he arrived within the NFL, and it’s frankly beautiful there’s been no enchancment on this space since he entered the league.
His cuts are gradual and plodding, too typically stutter-stepping on the prime of his route when he modifies course, making it far too simple for defenders to know the place he’s going. When Pitts is operating at full velocity he rounds his cuts, with none of the suddenness required to idiot a defender.
This all presents itself as really disgusting separation stats. In response to NFL Subsequent Gen Stats his weekly separation in 2024 is:
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
That represents a median route separation of two.2 yards in 2024. The NFL common is 2.93 yards, and it’s particularly dangerous when you think about that tight ends routinely have extra separation than extensive receivers due to place. For instance, Sam LaPorta of the Lions who’s an in-line, elite blocking TE with none of Pitts’ athletic receiving traits is producing 4.26 yards of separation this season. LaPorta is getting A FULL TWO YARDS MORE than Pitts regardless of having an ADOT of three.6 this season, 5 yards lower than Pitts.
Which means LaPorta’s brief route operating is overwhelmingly simpler than Pitts, who’s getting focused over double the space downfield however can’t generate any separation due to his lazy route operating.
Is there any hope for Kyle Pitts?
Not in Atlanta there isn’t. To ensure that Pitts to work the Falcons would wish to completely revamp their offense completely to characteristic him, and the juice merely isn’t well worth the squeeze.
It could be simple to say “Pitts may thrive with the Dolphins,” or “Pitts would make for a superb alternative for Travis Kelce on the Chiefs,” however in each these circumstances it’s unclear if he has the work ethic to make it work. Because it stands proper now Pitts’ lazy route operating and gradual cuts merely don’t have a spot within the NFL anyplace.
Unhealthy route operating results in dangerous separation, and this can be a participant who doesn’t have Gronk-like fingers to make ludicrous contested catches. Pitts performs small regardless of being 6’6 and 248 kilos, and that’s completely nullified any benefit he had upon coming into the NFL.
Each participant has an opportunity to revitalize their profession, simply ask Sam Darnold — however because it stands it’s unimaginable to think about an NFL the place Pitts matches. The league is shifting increasingly in the direction of being a run-first league, requiring tight ends prepared to do the soiled work within the trenches and combat for the ball in contested elements of the sphere.
Sadly, Kyle Pitts simply doesn’t have that canine in him.
