Introduction: Kyle Pitts 2026 Fantasy Outlook About to Boom?
The Atlanta Falcons slapped the Franchise Tag onto Kyle Pitts, locking him up on a one-year, $16.3M deal. Immediately, Pitts’ 2026 Fantasy Outlook and Upside are rocketing upwards.
Many fantasy football owners have Pitts firmly on their Never Again lists, and I can’t fault them. After a promising 1,000 yard rookie debut in 2021, Pitts was incredibly underwhelming over his next three years (2022-24). He finished as the TE22, TE18, and TE22 FPPG despite consistent “Top-5 TE Hype.
Yet, just as everyone was ready to quit him, Pitts flashed some real fantasy football juice in 2025. His production was a bit boom-or-bust, but Pitts actually finished as the TE2 in total fantasy points, trailing only Trey McBride.
Between a “Unicorn” prospect profile, his 2025 flashes, and new HC Kevin Stefanski‘s TE-friendly system, Kyle Pitts 2026 Fantasy Football upside is spiking upwards. He rose nearly 20 spots overall on my 2026 Fantasy Football Big Board, and is now the TE5 in my 2026 Fantasy Football Rankings (+3 ECR).
Let’s dive into Kyle Pitts 2026 Fantasy Outlook and why I am dramatically higher on him than his current ~78 ADP in Early 2026 Best Ball.
Kyle Pitts Prospect Profile: An Absolute Freak
It’s easy to forget that, just five years ago, Kyle Pitts was considered one of the most freakish, “Unicorn”-level tight end prospects to ever enter the NFL.
In just eight games during his junior year at Florida, Pitts accrued 43 catches (65 targets), 770 yards and a whopping 12 TDs. He averaged 96.3 YPG and an insane 13.9 average depth of target (aDot), and would’ve largely been considered a Top-3 Wide Receiver talent in the class, let alone the best TE by miles.
Per Scott Barrett, Pitts also received a 97.0 Overall Grade from PFF, the highest ever awarded to a college TE. The next-closest were Dallas Goedert in 2017 (95.5), Adam Trautman in 2019 (95.2), and George Kittle in 2015 (94.6).
Even more impressive, Pitts’ 96.7 PFF receiving grade was the highest given to ANY PLAYER at ANY POSITION! He also set the record for Yards per Route Run (YPRR) among TEs with 3.26.
Pitts’ college production and tape were truly untouchable. In fact, NFL Draft Analyst Thor Nystrom compared Pitts’ ceiling to freakin’ Calvin Johnson on our podcast together in 2021:
Beyond the production and film, Pitts’ athleticism and testing numbers were off the charts.
Pitts ran the second-fastest forty time by a TE all-time (4.40), trailing only Vernon Davis. His weight-adjusted speed score of 130.7 also ranks 2nd-best. Unsurprisingly, Pitts ranked 99th percentile in all speed-based metrics, as well as 94th percentile in Breakout Age (18.9), per PlayerProfiler.
Consequently, Pitts went 4th overall to the Falcons, a pick ahead of Ja’Marr Chase. The hype train was steaming forward at record-pace, with many analysts like Daniel Jeremiah calling Pitts a future Hall of Famer:
Unfortunately, despite one of the best and most-hyped TE prospect profiles of all time, Pitts’ career hasn’t exactly been off to a Hall of Fame start.
Kyle Pitts Career Thus Far: A Promising Start Derailed by Injury and Inconsistency
Pitts entered the NFL with arguably the most hype of all-time for a TE. Ultimately, he largely delivered on the promise.
Pitts became the first rookie TE to record 1,000+ yards since Mike Ditka in 1961. In fact, the list is still limited to just Pitts, Ditka, and Brock Bowers in 2024. He also led the NFL in YPRR when split out wide:
After this promising debut, Pitts was going in Round 1 of nearly every Dynasty Start Up draft. He was an untouchable asset, and nearly everyone thought this was just the first step on his path to the Hall of Fame.
Then: devastation.
For the next three seasons, Pitts became a running-gag for fantasy footballers. Every preseason, he would be bathed in hype and all of his sins would be excused. Every year, he’d also massively underwhelm.
In his sophomore campaign (2022), Pitts was going in Round 2, but finished as the TE22 in FPPG. But he was never healthy! Fair, Pitts did suffer a hamstring pull in Week 5, as well as a torn MCL in Week 11. Still, he had just three Top-12 games (30%) while healthy, and ultimately was outside the Top-24 TEs and under 5 points in 6-of-10 games.
Despite the flop, Pitts was again steamed up into the Round 4-5 range for 2023. This season, he stayed fully healthy… but was just the TE18. It must be the QB Play, Desmond Ridder sucks! Indeed, Ridder does suck, and Pitts was among the NFL leaders in unrealized Air Yards and uncatchable target rate. Still, Pitts was gaining NO separation, and commanding NO targets, either.
Then, Kirk Cousins arrived — our savior! Finally, Pitts would be healthy and have the QB play to return to the promising rookie-year form and regain his footing on his path to the “Hall of Fame!” Only… he flopped again, finishing as the TE22.
Naturally, last season when fantasy owners finally and understandably quit (TE17 & 140+ ADP in 2025 Drafts)… Pitts erupted. He finished as the TE2 in targets (118), receptions (88 – career high), yards (928), and PPR FPs (211).
The production was indeed Boom-or-Busty. Per RotoViz, Pitts did finish as a Top-12 TE in 53% of his starts. Still his 11 catch, 166 yard, 3 TDs and 45.6 FPs ERUPTION in Week 15 was enormous for his season-long finishes:
Prior to this massive outburst, Pitts was just the TE10 in FPs. Additionally, the vast majority of his production came without Drake London in the lineup.
Pitts’ 2025 Season Long Pace with London: 105 targets, 75 catches, 717 Yards, 3 TDs, 164 FPs.
His 9.63 FPPG would’ve ranked as the TE20, behind Zach Ertz, Brenton Strange, and Darren Waller among others.
Pitts’ 2025 Pace without London: 150 targets, 119 catches, 1435 yards, 10 TDs, 324 FPs (19.04). This would’ve actually bested Trey McBride‘s historic 2025 season (18.6 FPPG) and ranked as the TE1.
Ultimately, London will be back in 2026, and we can’t bank on a 45.6 FPs performance that skyrockets Pitts’ season-long ranks.
So why am I still so bullish on Pitts?
How will Kyle Pitts Fit in Kevin Stefanski’s Scheme?
Kevin Stefanski arriving in Atlanta could help Pitts finally hit his true ceiling. His offense’s have been incredibly TE-friendly, and Pitts has the skillset to be the best Stefanski’s ever worked with.
Despite rolling out an ancient Joe Flacco, crippled Deshaun Watson, abysmal Dillon Gabriel and only slightly better Shedeur Sanders (plus 7 games of the GOAT Jameis Winston), the Browns have ranked 5th, 1st, and 15th in pass attempts the past 3 years.
As you may have guessed, a ton of those passes have been directed at Tight Ends.
In fact, in six years calling plays for the Browns’, Stefanski’s teams have ranked no lower than 7th in total TE targets and no lower than 8th in TE target rate. Dating back to 2020:
- 2020 = 139 targets to Tight Ends (5th), 29.9% TE Target Share (3rd)
- 2021 = 137 (7th), 28.8% (3rd)
- 2022 = 126 (6th), 26.3% (4th)
- 2023 = 160 (5th), 28.0% (5th)
- 2024 = 156 (4th), 26.0% (8th)
- 2025 = 166 (2nd), 33.2% (2nd)
Beyond just sheer volume, Stefanski also uses his TEs in creative fashion. He’s a master of designing chunk plays off of play-action, as well as screens and YAC opportunities.
Just like at Harold Fannin last season. As a rookie, while competing with David Njoku, Fannin ranked 5th in targets (107), 2nd in target rate (25.5%), 5th in first read target share (23.1%), 7th in YAC (352), and 8th in deep target share (13.2%). He finished as the TE6 in FPs (186.4).
The year prior, Njoku ranked 6th in targets (97), 5th in target share (5th) and target rate (29.8%), as well as 3rd in first read targets (59) and tied for 4th in FPPG (13.5). As a starter under Stefanski, Njoku ranked 8th, 6th, and 5th in FPPG prior to Fannin’s arrival.
Fannin and Njoku’s Top-8 production is even more impressive when you factor in the bottom-barrel QB play they dealt with. When Njoku had even mildly competent QB play – Joe Flacco or Jameis Winston – he was nearly unstoppable.
With Winston at QB in 2024, Njoku was the TE4 from Weeks 7 – 14, posting 23.6, 17.1, 7.9, 3.9, 26.2, and 17.2 FPs (16.4 FPPG).
Even more impressive, with Flacco under center in 2023, Njoku was the TE2 in FPG (18.2), finishing with 16+ PPR FPs in 4-of-5 games
In short, Stefanski has a history of using his TEs at every layer, most often as the offense’s main passing vein. Even with subpar-to-league worst QB play, Stefanski consistently churned out Top-8 TE FPPG production.
Fannin and Njoku are certainly impressive talents, but Pitts undoubtedly has a higher ceiling than either.
When asked about franchise-tagging Pitts, Stefanski noted how excited he is to have Pitts on the squad:
“Obviously, Kyle’s a guy that I think very highly of, both professionally and personally, so excited to work with him…Obviously, his talent is evidence. I can see it on tape and what he’s been able to do in his career to date. So, he’s a guy that we’re excited to work with.”
Summary: Kyle Pitts 2026 Fantasy Outlook
Indeed, Kyle Pitts has had an inconsistent career. Some of his downs are easily explicable — injury or abysmal QB play. Other times, he’s just flat out disappeared, and been unable to separate.
Yet, when Pitts is healthy, sees volume, and those targets come from a competent QB (i.e. Matt Ryan or Kirk Cousins), he most often thrives. Pitts was among the most special prospects across any position but especially at TE, and for brief moments, we’ve caught glimpses of this “take-over-the-league” type of talent. We know he has a 50 point weekly ceiling, after all.
In a Stefanski scheme that prioritizes TEs, Pitts has a real shot to find the game-to-game consistency that’s eluded him his entire career. There’s absolutely risk given Pitt’s tendency to disappear, and the fact that the vast majority of his production came without London in the lineup.
Still, Pitts has the ability to win at every layer and with the ball in his hands. That’s something Stefanski can maximize. As such, he’s up to 62nd overall on my 2026 Fantasy Football Big Board (+27 ECR!) and now my TE5 (+3)
