The Atlanta Falcons have gotten off to an ugly start to the season. Kyle Pitts certainly hasn’t been immune to the trouble.
The star tight end has been incredibly quiet through two weeks, and it’s the kind of production that makes you wonder what’s going on.
Yes, the quarterback situation with Cooper Rush and Jack Strand has been problematic, and maybe that’s the main explanation.
Pitts had one target, an incompletion, in the 20-13 Week 1 loss to the Pittsburgh Steelers.
Then in the 34-3 Week 2 loss to the Carolina Panthers, Pitts was targeted three times. He caught one of them for 15 yards, his first reception of the year.
But beyond the targets and the yardage, something else stood out on Sunday, and it’s as big a reason to be concerned about Pitts as any.
Kyle Pitts Wasn’t Playing
Pitts had never played less in an NFL game than he did on Sunday.
His snap percentage was a career low:
Falcons’ snap count notes:
– Kyle Pitts played career-low 37.7% of snaps (in part from QB change)
– Za’Darius Smith uptick from 16 to 28 snaps
– Avieon Terrell played 26 snaps to Sydney Brown’s 18
– Zach Harrison 25 snaps
– Kendal Daniels 41 snaps to Harold Perkins Jr.’s 26— Daniel Flick (@ByDanielFlick) September 21, 2026
As the Falcons beat reporter Daniel Flick notes, the QB change mid-game from Rush to Strand did alter the usage some.
Still, it’s incredibly low for a guy who is supposed to be one of his offense’s best playmakers.
Even if we extrapolate and assume Pitts sat out more in the fourth quarter of the blowout, it’s not like he was all of a sudden on the field a ton.
This is a guy who the Falcons have struggled to use in the early going.
New Coach Curiosity
The question starts to become whether new head coach Kevin Stefanski, an offensive guru, is the culprit here, or if it’s the quarterbacks.
Stefanski had solid success in Cleveland with tight ends like David Njoku and Harold Fannin, so it doesn’t seem like he’d be holding Pitts back, but it certainly has been a less-than-ideal start to the season.
Pitts has had two really strong NFL seasons and three middling ones, at least for a guy of his talent, so it’s not unheard of for him to go through quiet stretches.
The main thing everyone wants answers to is what’s at fault. His snap usage certainly didn’t help on Sunday.
The next answer will only come when the Falcons finally get either Michael Penix Jr. or Tua Tagovailoa back from injury. If Pitts can’t produce with them playing QB, then there are bigger problems here. For now, it’s a struggle and a bit worrisome, but it’s an incomplete data set without the better quarterbacks on the field.
Falcons’ Kyle Pitts Encounters Major Reason For Worry