Kyle Pitts - Fantasy Points Outlook

The Falcons released TE Jonnu Smith. The 28-year-old set career highs last year with 50 catches and 582 receiving yards. Both marks ranked top-4 on the run-heavy Falcons. Smith's 1.55 yards per route ranked 11th among 45 qualifying TEs. He's still capable of making a fantasy football impact in 2024, depending on the landing spot. Smith's departure from Atlanta obviously doesn't hurt TE Kyle Pitts' outlook.

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The Falcons are hiring Zac Robinson as their new OC under HC Raheem Morris, according to NFL Network's Ian Rapoport. The 37-year-old Robinson played QB at Oklahoma State from 2006 to 2009. He was selected in the seventh round of the 2010 NFL draft by the Patriots but never attempted a regular-season pass across four seasons. Robinson then spent some time working as an analyst for Pro Football Focus before joining Sean McVay's Rams in 2019 as assistant QB coach. Robinson worked his way up to QB coach and passing-game coordinator over the last two seasons, but this will be his first time calling plays. Robinson's new offense has plenty of skill-position talent in RB Bijan Robinson, WR Drake London, and TE Kyle Pitts, but QB remains a major question mark. Atlanta currently holds the eighth overall pick in this spring's draft.

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Falcons TE Kyle Pitts believes the knee he injured in 2022 remained a factor throughout the 2023 campaign. He had surgery on November 29, 2022 to repair MCL and PCL damage to his right knee, missed most of the offseason program, and was limited at the start of training camp. "It's a continual growth in terms of coming off an injury," Pitts said. "So each week was trying to get better, keep getting stronger and, you know, just doing what I need to do to get back to the bionic knee that I used to have. That natural knee, you know, after surgery." Pitts had two of his four best fantasy outings of 2023 over the final five weeks of the season. Hopefully healthier in 2024 and with HC Arthur Smith finally out of the way, Pitts has obvious bounce-back potential.

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The Falcons will bench QB Desmond Ridder for the second time this season, The Athletic reports. Ridder mustered just 152 passing yards with one TD and one INT in the Week 15 loss to the Panthers. He's at 10 TDs vs. 10 INTs for the season and ranks 32nd among 33 qualifying QBs in Pro Football Focus' passing grades. This figures to be the end of Ridder's tenure in Atlanta. We'll see where he lands in 2024, but it's likely to be as a backup. QB Taylor Heinicke will take back over for the Falcons vs. the Colts this weekend. He's made three appearances this season, registering a 55.4% completion rate and 6.7 yards per attempt. Those marks are both worse than Ridder's this season.

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