The Falcons and Buccaneers celebrated National TE Day with Kyle Pitts and Cade Otton each scoring two TDs. Pitts ended catching four of five targets for 91 yards while Otton caught nine of 10 targets for 81 yards. Pitts nearly gave one of his away with a fumble over the goal line, but was ruled a TD.
Falcons TE Kyle Pitts set season highs across the board in the Thursday night win over the Bucs with eight targets, seven catches, and 88 yards. QB Kirk Cousins found Pitts wide open up the seam for a 32-yarder on the second play of the game. Pitts had a nice 18-yard catch and run in the second quarter. His other five grabs went for 10 yards or fewer.
Falcons TE Kyle Pitts had three targets on the game but did not haul in a catch in the Falcons win against the Saints. Pitts was shut down by a Saints defense that keyed in on him throughout the game.
Falcons WR Drake London had another solid game leading the Falcons in targets on Sunday Night Football. He ended the game catching six of his nine targets for 67 yards and an early TD.
Pitts caught all three of his targets for 26 yards and the only TD of the entire game against the Steelers. QB Kirk Cousins only completed 16 passes in the game, and Pitts was fairly quiet after his TD catch.
Falcons TE Kyle Pitts (hamstring) is not listed on the final Week 1 injury report. He popped up as limited in Wednesday’s practice but was a full-go in the final two workouts of the week. Pitts should be ready for a full slate of snaps in Sunday’s opener vs. the Steelers.
Falcons TE Kyle Pitts had a limited practice on Wednesday due to a hamstring injury per HC Raheem Morris. Per Morris, Pitts tweaked his hamstring a few weeks ago and has been practicing through it. There doesn't seem to be much worry about Pitts' availability on Sunday against the Steelers.
Falcons WR Rondale Moore will miss the 2024 season after suffering a knee injury in Wednesday's practice, NFL Network reports. We don't have any details yet on the injury.
Falcons QB Kirk Cousins (Achilles) has been medically cleared for training camp and will take all first-team reps while QBs Michael Penix Jr. and Taylor Heinicke split second-team reps.
The Falcons' new coaching staff has big plans for TE Kyle Pitts this season. OC Zac Robinson said that Pitts is playing both TE and WR in his offense. “He’s learning basically two different positions,” Robinson said. “There’s some tight end and there’s some receiver. So, he’s got a lot on his plate. He’s handled it really well. I’m just excited to see him continue to get more comfortable in the system. The sky is the limit for what kind of season that he can have."
Pro Football Talk's Mike Florio writes that he has "very credible indications" that QB Kirk Cousins is "seriously considering" a move to Atlanta to sign with the Falcons. Cousins' wife grew up near Atlanta, and the Falcons "have always been the top alternative to the Vikings for Cousins," per Florio. Cousins would be a nice fit playing indoors in new OC Zac Robinson's offense with WR Drake London, TE Kyle Pitts, and RB Bijan Robinson. Likewise, a move for Cousins would be excellent news for the fantasy value of Atlanta's key weapons. We should know who Cousins will be playing for in 2024 within the next couple of weeks.
The Falcons released TE Jonnu Smith. The 28-year-old set career highs last year with 50 catches and 582 receiving yards. Both marks ranked top-4 on the run-heavy Falcons. Smith's 1.55 yards per route ranked 11th among 45 qualifying TEs. He's still capable of making a fantasy football impact in 2024, depending on the landing spot. Smith's departure from Atlanta obviously doesn't hurt TE Kyle Pitts' outlook.
The Falcons are hiring Zac Robinson as their new OC under HC Raheem Morris, according to NFL Network's Ian Rapoport. The 37-year-old Robinson played QB at Oklahoma State from 2006 to 2009. He was selected in the seventh round of the 2010 NFL draft by the Patriots but never attempted a regular-season pass across four seasons. Robinson then spent some time working as an analyst for Pro Football Focus before joining Sean McVay's Rams in 2019 as assistant QB coach. Robinson worked his way up to QB coach and passing-game coordinator over the last two seasons, but this will be his first time calling plays. Robinson's new offense has plenty of skill-position talent in RB Bijan Robinson, WR Drake London, and TE Kyle Pitts, but QB remains a major question mark. Atlanta currently holds the eighth overall pick in this spring's draft.
Falcons TE Kyle Pitts believes the knee he injured in 2022 remained a factor throughout the 2023 campaign. He had surgery on November 29, 2022 to repair MCL and PCL damage to his right knee, missed most of the offseason program, and was limited at the start of training camp. "It's a continual growth in terms of coming off an injury," Pitts said. "So each week was trying to get better, keep getting stronger and, you know, just doing what I need to do to get back to the bionic knee that I used to have. That natural knee, you know, after surgery." Pitts had two of his four best fantasy outings of 2023 over the final five weeks of the season. Hopefully healthier in 2024 and with HC Arthur Smith finally out of the way, Pitts has obvious bounce-back potential.
The Falcons will bench QB Desmond Ridder for the second time this season, The Athletic reports. Ridder mustered just 152 passing yards with one TD and one INT in the Week 15 loss to the Panthers. He's at 10 TDs vs. 10 INTs for the season and ranks 32nd among 33 qualifying QBs in Pro Football Focus' passing grades. This figures to be the end of Ridder's tenure in Atlanta. We'll see where he lands in 2024, but it's likely to be as a backup. QB Taylor Heinicke will take back over for the Falcons vs. the Colts this weekend. He's made three appearances this season, registering a 55.4% completion rate and 6.7 yards per attempt. Those marks are both worse than Ridder's this season.
Falcons TE Jonnu Smith hauled 5 of 6 targets for a team-high 100 receiving yards in Week 9 vs. the Vikings. Most of that production game on a 60-yard TD on a screen pass in the third quarter. Sunday was the first time he out-targeted teammate Kyle Pitts over the past four games. Pitts was fine (4 catches, 56 yards), though it’s disappointing that he didn’t see a more significant role without WR Drake London (groin) in the lineup. The duo of Smith and Pitts rank as the TE14 and 17 in PPR points per game, respectively. Both are relatively decent lineup options, though the frustrating nature of HC Arthur Smith’s offense makes them hard to count on for consistency. Their prospects won’t be any easier for the rest of the season, either. The Falcons’ remaining schedule ranks as the ninth-toughest for TEs per our adjusted fantasy points allowed.
Falcons WR Drake London (groin) is out for Sunday’s game vs. the Vikings. That leaves Atlanta with WRs Van Jefferson, KhaDarel Hodge, Mack Hollins, and Scotty Miller. Seriously. TEs Kyle Pitts and Jonnu Smith should draw more targets with London out. RBs Bijan Robinson and Cordarrelle Patterson could also play expanded roles in the passing game.
Falcons HC Arthur Smith announced Wednesday that QB Taylor Heinicke will start Sunday against the Vikings. It's not a shocking move after the team pulled QB Desmond Ridder from the Week 8 loss to the Titans. Ridder has largely struggled outside of a 329-yard passing effort in the Week 5 win over Houston. Since that game, he has tossed just 2 TD passes vs. 3 INTs across three contests, while also taking a sack on nearly 10% of dropbacks and losing 4 fumbles. Heinicke went an OK 12-of-21 (57.1%) for 175 yards (8.3 per attempt) after taking over against Tennessee. His 9.7 average target depth in that contest -- according to Pro Football Refernce -- was about 2 yards deeper than Ridder's season rate of 7.8. Pro Football Focus credits Heinicke with a career 8.8-yard average depth of target and 9.2-yard aDOT with the Commanders last season. Heinicke's career 63.7% completion rate comes in short of Ridder's (64.8%), and we've seen enough to know he won't bring consistent efficiency. But a daring downfield thrower could boost the fantasy production of Falcons WR Drake London and TE Kyle Pitts ... if Arthur Smith will allow the offense to exploit those skills. (And assuming London's groin injury doesn't linger, of course.) We're not significantly upgrading our outlooks for any Falcons offensive pieces on this switch. But a move away from Ridder at least allows for some optimism. We'll see whether London's able to play this week -- and then how Heinicke fares in his first Atlanta start. The Minnesota matchup looks fairly neutral for Falcons passing.
Falcons WR Drake London hauled 5 of his team-high 7 targets for 55 receiving yards in Week 8’s loss vs. the Titans. TEs Kyle Pitts and Jonnu Smith struggled on Sunday, however, with a combined 4 catches and 48 yards between them. It’s fair to estimate that perhaps some of these struggles can be attributed to the Falcons going from QB Desmond Ridder to backup Taylor Heinicke midway through the game. Still, this was not a particularly strong performance from Atlanta’s aerial attack. Projecting these pass-catchers for their upcoming matchup against the Vikings will be tough to do until we know who will be under center in Week 9.
Falcons TE Kyle Pitts was quiet for the majority of Sunday's game vs. the Bucs, catching just two balls in the first 59 minutes. But he broke loose for a 39-yard catch and run with under a minute to go to set up K Younghoe Koo's game-winning FG. Pitts was the victim of a run-heavy attack from the Falcons. QB Desmond Ridder threw it just 25 times, with four of those (16%) going to Pitts. That's the risk with any part of this Falcons passing game. The good news is that Week 8 brings a Titans defense that's much tougher against the run than the pass. That should push Atlanta to throw it more than usual. Pitts remains a lower-end TE1 going forward.
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