What I’m seeing from the Atlanta Falcons: The Kyle Pitts question won’t go away

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FLOWERY BRANCH, Ga. — Maybe the Atlanta Falcons shouldn’t have picked Kyle Pitts with the No. 4 pick of the 2021 NFL Draft just so they wouldn’t have to answer The Kyle Pitts Question all the time.

In a four-year stretch in Atlanta that has included five starting quarterbacks, three defensive coordinators and two head coaches, the only consistent thing has been everyone wondering what’s going on with the Falcons’ starting tight end. And, based on what I’m seeing, the question is not going away anytime soon.

Coach Raheem Morris got his first real taste of it Sunday afternoon at Mercedes-Benz Stadium. The Falcons (2-2) had just finished a dramatic 26-24 win over their most bitter rival, and the third media member to get the microphone asked about getting Pitts more involved in the offense. Morris looked surprised by the question. He shouldn’t have been. Welcome to Atlanta: Where the players play and everyone always wants to know why Kyle Pitts didn’t catch more passes.

Morris rambled a little to start his answer and then said this: “Really to me, man, stats are for losers. “I don’t get involved in that stuff.”

We’ll get involved in it, though, starting with this: Pitts caught 68 passes for 1,026 yards in 17 games as a rookie, becoming only the second rookie tight end in league history to top 1,000 yards. It’s worth remembering that as a starting point for the conversation. Matt Ryan, who will go into the team’s Ring of Honor on Thursday night, was the quarterback then. The Falcons traded Ryan the following offseason, and whether there’s a direct correlation or not, Pitts has never been the same.

In 31 post-Ryan games, a span that included one major knee injury and four starting quarterbacks, Pitts has 89 catches for 1,128 yards. That’s 36.4 yards per game. Cincinnati Bengals wide receiver Ja’Marr Chase, drafted one spot after Pitts, is averaging 82 receiving yards per game in his career. Former Falcons coach Arthur Smith got the blame for Pitts’ dwindling production the last two years, but four games into a new offensive system, not much has changed.

In fact, Pitts has fewer targets and catches through four games in 2024 than he did in 2023 despite being on the field for a slightly higher percentage of plays. He has eight catches on 15 targets for 105 yards this season. After four games last season, he had 11 catches on 21 targets for 121 yards.

“Of course, you’re wanting to get the ball in his hands,” offensive coordinator Zac Robinson said. “He’ll continue to get the ball in the flow of the offense as it goes. He’s doing a great job. I think the more that he can be detail-oriented and play as fast as he can, the ball is naturally just going to find him.”

Pitts’ routes run and targets have remained consistent through four games, but his percentage of time on the field has consistently, if slowly, been dwindling. The tight end was in for 96 percent of the offensive snaps in Week 1, according to TruMedia. That number dropped to 72.3 percent in Week 2, 67.9 percent in Week 3 and 64.7 percent in Week 4.

Pitts ranked 80th this week in ESPN Analytics’ weekly Receiver Scores, which gives receivers an overall grade based on how often they are open, how many catches they make and how many yards they get after those catches. It was the lowest score in the league for a qualifying tight end or wide receiver.

First-year Falcons quarterback Kirk Cousins ​​certainly hasn’t forgotten about Pitts. Just like he did in the preseason, Cousins ​​regularly talks to the tight end about what’s happening in the offense and why.

“It’s interesting because the under route I threw to him, I actually shouldn’t have,” Cousins ​​said after last week’s win over the New Orleans Saints. “I should have gone over his head to Ray-Ray (McCloud). The third down at midfield, I threw it to Drake (London), and looking back I wish I had thrown it to Kyle over his head on a deep corner route. There are some plays where I come back to the sideline and say, ‘Hey, Kyle, I have to work you better there.’ And there are other ones where I did work to him and I say, ‘I probably forced it.’ It goes both ways, you just always go where your reads take you.”

When or if the Falcons’ reads will take the ball to Pitts more often is unanswerable at the moment. The only certainty is the question is here to stay.

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The other offensive targets

Cousins’ comment above — “You just always go where the reads take you.” — applies to more than Pitts. When Morris took over and hired Robinson away from the Los Angeles Rams, there was a notion that Atlanta would begin to feature its highest-profile players more.

Through four games, the numbers haven’t changed much, and the biggest reason for that is Cousins’ absolute dedication to the system. Throughout his 13-year career, the quarterback has become known for his egalitarian approach to pass distribution — the open player gets the ball regardless of jersey number.

“Sometimes it skews the numbers one way or another, and sometimes it’s really balanced,” Cousins ​​said. “You just have to kind of go where the play takes you.”

Through four games, Pitts, wide receiver Drake London and running back Bijan Robinson — all of whom were top-10 draft picks — have 98 offensive touches for 664 yards. Through four games in 2023, they had 94 touches for 699 yards. The biggest beneficiary of the change has been London, who has nine more targets, nine more catches and 74 more yards than he did at this time last year. Robinson’s numbers are slightly down — 70 touches for 359 yards this year compared with 72 touches for 452 yards through four games last year.

Jake Matthews, right, and the Falcons’ offensive line have done a better job protecting quarterback Kirk Cousins ​​since the opener. (Brett Davis/Imagn Images)

A has tip

Atlanta’s pass blocking deserves a mention. Even if the numbers since Week 1 don’t look much different, the pocket does. Cousins ​​was harassed by TJ Watt and the Steelers throughout the first game of the season, leading to concern that the Falcons couldn’t pass block well enough to run the system Zac Robinson wants to run.

The Steelers sacked Cousins ​​on 7.1 percent of his dropbacks. The last three opponents have managed 4.1 percent, and the quarterback’s time to throw has gone up from 2.65 seconds in Week 1 to 2.82 seconds in the last three weeks. Not huge differences but significant ones.

“Yeah, I think so,” Cousins ​​said. “Usually whenever I felt anything (against New Orleans) it was because I was going through a progression longer. I thought they did a good job. I was really pleased.”

The improved performance has survived changes up front, too, as Ryan Neuzil and Storm Norton have had to fill in for the injured Drew Dalman and Kaleb McGary.

“There’s a high standard in the room, and we have that next-man-up mentality,” Norton said, “and we try not to skip a beat no matter who is in there.”

Not enough easy buttons

It’s too early to tell if this is a bad thing or not, but the Falcons aren’t getting enough really big offensive plays, and the resulting grinding approach is the biggest reason the Falcons are 29th in offensive touchdowns (five) and are tied for 22nd in scoring (18.8 points per game).

Atlanta is ninth in the league in plays of 10 or more yards with 53, according to TruMedia. That ranking, though, plummets to 25th on plays for 20 or more yards (10). Maybe that means the Falcons are about to unlock another level to this offense. Or maybe it just means their offense is going to be hobbled all year by an inability to get anything the easy way.

All that’s certain is that right now it looks like the Falcons are having to work very hard for every yard, and that’s because they are.

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The defensive approach is boring

It’s boring by design, and it’s probably the right approach to take to defense in 2024. Still, it’s boring.

The Falcons under first-year defensive coordinator Jimmy Lake, like almost every other team in the league, have decided that the best way to stop NFL offenses is to take away the potential for big plays. That means a lot of two-high safety approaches, a lot of zone defense and a lot of giving up stuff underneath and hoping offenses can’t get all the way down the field the hard way. The Falcons’ approach is working. They are second in the league in percentage of explosive plays allowed (8.3 percent), according to TruMedia.

Atlanta is 24th in the league in defensive splash plays (74), according to TruMedia. It has forced only four turnovers, which ranks tied for 14th in the league. It plays zone coverage 78.6 percent of the time, more than all but three teams in the league, according to TruMedia. The Falcons blitz at the seventh-highest rate in the NFL (35.1 percent) but pressure the quarterback at only the 24th-highest rate (29.9 percent).

All of this adds up to a defense that is tied for 14th in the league in points allowed (21.3) and seventh in yards per play allowed (4.9). So, it’s working, but it’s not exactly the Grits Blitz.

(Top photo: Brett Davis / Imagn Images)