The Atlanta Falcons, after plenty of speculation and doubt, got Kyle Pitts signed to a contract extension in the offseason.
The deal was supposed to entrench Pitts as one of the leading pass catchers on Atlanta’s roster, a tight end who plays more like a wide receiver, a player continuing to come into his own in the NFL.
That might still happen. It just didn’t happen at all in Week 1 of the 2026 NFL season.
In the Falcons‘ 20-13 loss in Pittsburgh to the Steelers, Pitts didn’t catch a single pass.
He was targeted just once, an incompletion.
It prompted Falcons fans, fantasy football players and sports bettors alike to see Pitts with a big whopping zero and wonder what in the world might have happened.
Why Didn’t Kyle Pitts Have a Catch?
There are multiple explanations, but the simplest starts at the quarterback position for the Falcons.
Atlanta didn’t have Tua Tagovailoa (oblique) or Michael Penix Jr. (knee) available due to injury, and so they were on the player who was supposed to be their QB3.
Cooper Rush is an experienced backup who has had good moments as a starter, but not in a few years — he struggled mightily in 2025 in Baltimore, and it looked a lot like that on Sunday.
Rush was just 12-for-22 for 143 yards with a touchdown and two interceptions. He took four sacks.
On ESPN’s QBR scale that goes from 0 to 100, Rush had a QBR for the game of 2.6.
Atlanta couldn’t get anything going through the air except when Rush threw to running back Bijan Robinson — who caught 8-of-10 targets for 90 yards and a touchdown.
Rush threw nearly half his passes to Bijan, which left very little to go around on a day when his efficiency wasn’t very good anyway.
It led to a quiet day for Drake London, who caught 2-of-4 targets for 29 yards.
Jahan Dotson caught 1-of-3 targets for 19 yards. Olamide Zaccheaus caught his lone target for five yards.
And then there was Pitts, whose lone target didn’t even result in a completion.
On this day, against a strong Steelers pass rush, Bijan was particularly important because Rush could get him with quick checkdown passes. Pitts is a guy who depends on working further down the field, and between Rush’s lack of arm talent and the speeding up that Pittsburgh’s defense forced the QB to do, that just wasn’t going to work.
What now for Kyle Pitts?
Pitts is coming off a season in which he was targeted 118 times in 17 games, catching 88 of those for 928 yards and five touchdowns.
There’s a new head coach and offensive mind in charge in Kevin Stefanski, but Stefanski used his tight ends plenty in Cleveland, so that shouldn’t be a concern.
Pitts has plenty of potential to rebound, but he does need one of Tagovailoa or Penix to get healthy. They’ll be the key to him getting more opportunities in better spots.
If Rush remains the QB for another week or two, Pitts could get more targets but even then wouldn’t have super high upside to do much with them if the Falcons continue to struggle to move the ball as a whole.
Why Kyle Pitts Had 0 Catches in Week 1 for Falcons