Early Monday afternoon Atlanta Falcons‘ head coach Raheem Morris addressed the media ahead of the team’s second week of optional practices. Last week, the team’s star tight end, Kyle Pitts, made headlines when it was discovered that the fifth-year player was not on the field for the first week of OTA’s. When asked about the super star’s absence, Morris alluded to the fact that Pitts might be dealing with an undisclosed injury.
“Extremely cautious with Kyle right now and what he’s got going on,” Morris said to the room of reporters. “Obviously, don’t talk about injuries this time of year, but definitely being cautious with him, so you won’t see him.”
The head coach went on to praise the tight end, saying that he has been in the building and contributing in ways the team is comfortable with.
“He’s been here, he’s done such a great job of all the stuff that we’ve asked of him,” Morris continued. “He’s been in every single meeting, he’s been in every single thing that we’ve done other than the field, and he’s been absolutely outstanding to be around. But we’re going to be extremely cautious with him.”
All of this is transpiring amid some pretty hot and heavy trade rumors circling around the 24-year-old’s future with the team.
Trade Rumors Heating Up
Trade rumors centering around Kyle Pitts’ first started circulating last week. Since then, it is reported that the young promising tight end has garnered a lot of attention from teams around the league.
“Sources: Multiple teams have reached out to the #Falcons about the availability of TE Kyle Pitts,” NFL insider Jordan Schultz posted on X to his nearly half a million followers. “Nothing is imminent, and Atlanta would prefer to keep him — but I’m told it would take at least a Day 2 pick to even spark serious talks.”
The trade rumors recently got picked up by ESPN’s SportsCenter, where insider Jeremy Fowler addressed the team’s strategy in “not aggressively” shopping their tight end.
“So I checked in with a source who said that, look, if Atlanta gets the right kind of deal for Kyle Pitts, it very well could come together,” Fowler reported. “I don’t think it’s a situation where they’re aggressively shopping him, but it appears talking to some other teams, they think Atlanta is at least open to the possibility, and Pitts might be as well. I’m told, he loves Atlanta. This is not a situation where he’s requesting a trade, but if he has a chance to go to maybe a better offense where he’s more featured, he’s sort of the third or fourth wheel right now in Atlanta, could be something that he’s open to.”
Atlanta’s Cap Space Post June 1
June first marks the day a lot of teams see their cap space sky rocket. It’s kind of like getting your tax return, except it usually mean’s you lost a good player.
As it stands, Atlanta currently has the most to gain in the league thanks to this designation. Trading Kirk Cousins would result in a more than $27 million dollar boost in Atlanta’s spending money. And, following the theme of this story, if you throw Kyle Pitts’ name into the bag, Atlanta could be up to a number as high as $38 million dollars in freed up cap space should the two players be moved.
Falcons Head Coach Alludes To Team Hiding Injury Of Super Star