Fantasy Upside
The up-and-down nature of Kyle Pitts' first three seasons in the NFL has a lot of fantasy managers simply passing him over in drafts because they've been "burned". So, it's easy to overlook the fact that he is only 23 years old and has a 1,000-yard campaign under his belt. Only one tight end had 1,000 yards receiving last season (George Kittle), while Travis Kelce was the only one to do it in 2022, so maybe we should cut Pitts a little slack here. He's had miserable quarterback play and an OC who forced touches to Jonnu Smith mixed in over the last two years. Neither of those issues are still relevant in 2024. His ceiling is fantastic Kirk Cousins' No. 2 option. Up until his Achilles tear, TE T.J. Hockenson had a 21.6% target share and a 53-478-3 stat line.
Fantasy Downside
As 2022 and 2023 Pitts drafters are well aware of, the tight end hasn't crested 700 yards since his rookie season and has six combined receiving touchdowns on 249 career targets. Also, veteran Jonnu Smith had a better YPRR (1.55-to-1.43) and far better yards-after-catch numbers (7.3-to-2.5). Surely, we can't blame all of Pitts' shortcomings on Arthur Smith, who ran an offense that targeted the position (173) more than 29 other teams.
2024 Bottom Line
There's not a lot to be negative about in reference to Kyle Pitts in 2024, even if fantasy drafters are none-too-excited about his output these last two seasons. Cousins has a history of targeting the position heavily, the new Falcons OC is all but guaranteed to instill a more robust passing attack than the previous regime, and Pitts profiles as the No. 2 receiving option on an offense that should look much better than in 2022-23.
