Sports Media

Why 2024 Will Be The Kyle Pitts Breakout Season

Trey Daubert / Fantasy Football, NFL / June 11, 2024

Why 2024 Will Be The Kyle Pitts Breakout Season

I know what you’re thinking already. Kyle Pitts broke your heart so that means you can never trust him again in fantasy.

Good…

I hope you keep thinking like that. Please keep thinking like that. Just know you’re the problem and you suck at fantasy football for a reason.

2024 will be the year of the Kyle Pitts breakout season. You will never get him at this discounted price again. Now is the time to strike in all fantasy league formats.

Again, I know what you’re thinking. You’re one of these dopes who reached for Pitts in the past and when he broke your heart you were left wondering why. Except I tried to warn you exactly what was going to happen. For Pitts’ first three years of his career, I’ve had zero shares of him in fantasy. This is why.

For the smart people who understands how this works, tight ends don’t just set the world on fire out of the gates. It just doesn’t happen. Tony Gonzalez, Antonio Gates, Jimmy Graham, etc. None of them were electric fantasy assets early in their career. Then the leap happened. The leap that’s going to happen with Pitts.

As a rookie at age 21, Pitts made the Pro Bowl and notched 1,026 yards. Based on history, that’s one of the best seasons ever by a rookie tight end. Sam LaPorta lit the world on fire last year and didn’t crack 900 yards. Gives you some perspective, huh?

The other two years can be chalked up to dysfunction and bad luck. Pitts suffered an MCL injury in year two and it had some carry over to the following year. Plus, the Arthur Smith factor of having absolutely no idea how to use Pitts. Oh, and his quarterback was Desmond Ridder who is god awful.

There is zero reason to give up on Pitts moving forward. If you got your heart broken in the past, that’s on you. I’ve never once told you to draft him as we’ve been over the history of early career tight ends many times.

Heading into 2024-25, the Falcons are still incredibly dysfunctional but Pitts’ situation has improved exponentially.

A: Kirk Cousins is the new quarterback. Cousins isn’t going to save this franchise but he’s an upgrade over Desmond Ridder. We can at least agree on that.

B: Jonnu Smith is gone. You might not think that’s a big deal but I promise you that it is. Especially because Arthur Smith essentially treated Jonnu as the starting tight end last year and Pitts as a utility piece.

Want to hear a stat? Jonnu has been in the league for seven years. Last year in Atlanta he posted career-high totals in yards (582), targets (70), and receptions (50). Jonnu is now in Miami.

In 2023, Pitts had the highest average depth of target of any tight end in the league. Jonnu was given those easy zone eating looks. Pitts was last among all qualified tight ends in targets from 0-9 yards (40.7% of total targets). That’s going to change this year. I promise you that.

The new backup tight end in Atlanta is now Charlie Woerner who has 11 career receptions in four years with the 49ers and likely won’t be involved at all in the passing game.

C: Zac Robinson appears smarter than Arthur Smith in terms of orchestrating a passing attack. His comments about how they plan to utilize Pitts are extremely encouraging.