No tight end has caused as much panic to Fantasy managers the first two weeks of the season as Kyle Pitts. In fact, I'm not sure any player at any position has.
Pitts has 38 yards on the season and is getting out-targeted and out-produced by rookie teammate Drake London. Considering he was a third- or fourth-round pick in most leagues, Fantasy managers are rightly concerned about Pitts. In fact, I've even gotten a few questions about sitting him for Tyler Higbee. For now, I still see too much upside to even consider sitting Pitts in a weekly league, and that we'll remain the case until at least Week 5.
If Pitts struggles each of the next two weeks, we might have to have a conservation. The hope is that the league takes notice of London, shifts coverage that way, and Pitts sees more one-on-one coverage. The second hope is that Mariota can then find him.
It sure seems like Mariota's first read is London right now, and Arthur Smith didn't sound like he wanted to change anything to get Pitts more involved. But Smith is also trying to win games, and getting Pitts involved will help him do that. Be patient with your superstar tight end for at least two more weeks; we'll have another discussion at that point.
Here's everything else you need to know about tight end in Week 3:
Jake Ferguson should be the lead tight end for the Cowboys
TE Preview
Numbers to Know
20 -- Tyler Higbee leads all tight ends with 20 targets through Week 2 games. He also has run the most routes by a tight end with 76 and received the most red zone targets with four.
4.0 -- Mark Andrews leads all tight ends with 4.0 yards per route run.
19 -- Kyle Pitts has exactly 19 yards (and two catches) in each of the Falcons' first two games.
11 -- Zach Ertz saw 11 targets in Week 2. He's a start until at least Week 7.
142 -- Dallas Goedert ranks third among tight ends in receiving yards. He'll get into the end zone eventually.
13.8 -- Gerald Everett's 13.8 PPR FPPG ranks fourth among tight ends. He's a must-start if Keenan Allen remains out and a fine stream if Allen is back.
Thomas saw his participation increase in Week 2 and I'd expect that trend to continue moving forward. He has a lot of competition for targets, but playing one of the most pass-heavy offenses in football should help mitigate that. I'd expect Thomas to be a borderline top-12 tight end rest of season.
Engram had an encouraging Week 2 with 11 PPR Fantasy points and has thus far avoided the drops that plagued him in New York. He doesn't have a great matchup in Week 3, but volume could make up for that.
We fully expect Kirk Cousins to light up the Lions and Irv Smith looked like the No. 3 option in this offense we expected in Week 2. The only hesitation is how limited his role was in Week 1. Hopefully that was the aberration, but it's tough to trust him until we see for sure.
It's been a very consolidated target share in Los Angeles, with Cooper Kupp and Tyler Higbee accounting for 60% of the team's targets thus far. That's how Higbee ranks as TE7 even though he's yet to score a touchdown. He's more valuable on DraftKings due to the full PPR scoring.
When a player as talented as Pitts has been as bad as he has, he's almost always going to be high on my contrarian list. If he falters against the Seahawks as well, I may have to start reconsidering.
