Photo by All-Pro Reels, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia CommonsThe Falcons List Kyle Pitts First. They Play Him Second.
Atlanta's depth chart calls Kyle Pitts the TE1. The snap sheet has Charlie Woerner ahead of him, and that gap explains more than any adjective written about Pitts this week.
Atlanta lists Kyle Pitts as its TE1. Atlanta plays Charlie Woerner more.
Here is the number. Woerner has taken 147 offensive snaps this season. Pitts has taken 135, of Atlanta's 257 (Pro Football Reference, whose snap counts are unofficial). The blocking tight end has been on the field more than the listed starter.
The take I read didn't have it. In a Week 5 fantasy start-sit note, The Big Lead wrote that Pitts "appears to have all but given up," and that his "separation and effort" are drawing fantasy managers' ire. No figure for either. I went looking: ESPN carries no separation field, neither does Pro Football Reference, and a targeted search returned ten results with no 2026 number. The verdict is on the record. The measurement isn't — theirs or mine.
What is on the record: nine targets in four games. Last season, 118 in seventeen. Seven a game down to two. The balls that do arrive travel further, 13.4 yards a catch against 10.5.
Then the calendar. The one-catch night being cited was September 24 at Green Bay, two games ago, on a season-high 42 snaps. His most recent game was Monday at New Orleans, Atlanta 45, New Orleans 24: three targets, three catches, 47 yards, the longest reception of his season, on his second-lowest snap count of the year. Snaps don't settle this either.
Michael Penix Jr. is at 10.6 yards an attempt on 45 of them in his two starts, the highest of any quarterback in the NFL. The throws are fine.
In April I wrote that the Falcons broke Kyle Pitts. I also said he'd probably be gone before camp. He is still here in number 8. I was wrong about that. The snap sheet says I was not wrong about the rest.
The Tilt
Kyle Pitts is Atlanta's TE1 on paper and its TE2 on the field.
— Dex Ponce
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