Kyle Pitts on the field at Falcons training camp

The third-year tight end is healthy enough to practice, and that’s great news for this offense.

Few Falcons, if any, are more primed for a bounce back season than Kyle Pitts. After a frustrating year marked by injury and shaky quarterback play, the gifted third-year tight end seems primed to deliver on his considerable potential in a re-tooled offense with a quarterback who should be eager (and hopefully able) to get him the ball.

The question mark this summer concerned his availability, and whether he’d start training camp on the physically unable to perform list. He did not, thankfully, and the even better news is that he’s actually out there on the field and catching passes.

This is one step in a journey—Pitts is still wearing a brace—but it’s a hugely encouraging one. The Falcons have a ton of exciting young pieces on offense this year, including rookie running back Bijan Robinson and second-year receiver Drake London, but Pitts still has a ceiling that potentially exceeds all of them. We saw flashes of it in 2021 when he put up a 1,000 yard season, and we saw very brief glimpses of it last year when balls weren’t sailing over his head. What we haven’t seen is the true dominance Pitts seem capable of, and if he’s healthy in an offense built to take pressure off of him, we should in 2023.

The top tight end and a versatile weapon for Desmond Ridder, Pitts should be first or second on the team in targets this year if he stays healthy, and should benefit from an offense that will want to go deep. We’ll hope he continues to work with no setbacks, and that we’ll see the kind of all-caps KYLE PITTS year we’ve been salivating over since he was drafted.