Back in 2021, Kyle Pitts put together one of the best rookie seasons a tight end has ever had. Pitts caught 68 passes for 1,026 yards during his debut campaign, checking in just 50 yards shy of Mike Ditka's all-time rookie record for the position.
But during his subsequent two seasons, Pitts has seemingly taken several steps backward, with his performance marred by injuries and declining snap shares. He caught just 81 passes for 1,023 yards across the 2022 and 2023 seasons combined.
Now, though, Pitts is feeling rejuvenated. The team has a new coaching staff, and the feeling around the team is apparently so much different that he's treating this like another debut season.
"I would say I'm a super rookie," Pitts said, via the team's official website. "I'm not a rookie rookie. But we're all in this new offense, new regime, new schedule. We're all in this fresh."
Pitts also says that he's healthy now, which should help him in 2024. He noted that he had surgery on both his MCL and PCL last offseason, and said it affected his ability to get ready for the games. "It wouldn't say it was so much bad during the game," Pitts said. "It was more the preparation during the week, just dealing with soreness and tightness all through the week. Then, Sunday is show day, so I figured it out."
His declining production led to speculation that the Falcons would decline to pick up his fifth-year option, on which he is set to make a fully-guaranteed $10.9 million in 2025 -- but that didn't happen. And for that, Pitts is thankful. "Definitely it's a blessing for the upstairs to still have faith in me," Pitts said. "I'll try to show them I can do something different this year."
So is new head coach Raheem Morris, who apparently is pretty excited about having Pitts around. "He's really excited about being healthy, and so are we," Morris said. "Getting a healthy Kyle Pitts back gives you a really dynamic player that we believe in a lot. … If we can get this guy going, we all know what he could be."
