Kyle Pitts is entering a crucial season.
It's going to be his last year under his current contract with the Atlanta Falcons.
That makes him a prime candidate for trade rumors, and ESPN's Dan Graziano sees a very possible scenario where Pitts does in fact get traded away this season.
"Part of this is what I'm seeing -- or rather not seeing," Graziano writes. "Pitts is in the final year of his contract, playing for $10.878 million on the fifth-year option from his rookie deal. The Falcons have made no move to extend him beyond this season. The fourth pick of the 2021 draft has averaged 49 catches per season and caught a total of 10 touchdown passes in his four-year career while struggling to consistently stay healthy.
"When No. 2 receiver Darnell Mooney went down with an injury early in training camp, there was a lot of talk about Atlanta filling that void by playing two-tight end sets and basically using Pitts as a receiver. And the Falcons absolutely might still try that. But there are definitely signs that they don't view Pitts as a great fit for what they're trying to do on offense. Mooney's training camp absence gave some of the younger receivers on the roster a chance to show what they can do, and if one or more of them has emerged as a reliable contributor by the time the trade deadline rolls around, don't be shocked if Pitts is on the move."
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Pitts, still only 24, was the No. 4 overall pick out of Florida in 2021.
As a rookie, he caught 68 passes for 1,026 yards (and oddly, only one touchdown).
But Pitts has never reached even 700 yards in a season since then.
He battled injuries in 2022, but then in 2023 and 2024, he averaged 633 yards per season while playing all 17 games both times.
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Second-year QB Michael Penix Jr. has a strong arm and could be a boost for Pitts, or he's not meant to live up to his early-career massive hype.
Either way, a trade could be in the works, at least the way Graziano sees it.
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