Latest news with #KylePitts
Forbes
2 days ago
- Sport
- Forbes
Trade for These TEs in Dynasty Fantasy Football
TAMPA, FLORIDA - OCTOBER 27: Kyle Pitts #8 of the Atlanta Falcons runs for extra yardage after a ... More reception against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers during the second quarter at Raymond James Stadium on October 27, 2024 in Tampa, Florida. (Photo by) If you haven't read any of my other work about players to buy in dynasty fantasy football, we've covered running back, wide receiver, and quarterback. Now it's time to dive into the tight ends. As always, we'll be targeting players who can provide value to any dynasty team, no matter what stage you're in. For that reason, we'll be looking at three young players who should increase in value from the current market price. In order to get a baseline for these market prices, we'll refer to Keep Trade Cut. With that being said, let's dive into the article. Trade for These TEs in Dynasty Fantasy Football A lot of people are going to be scared away from Kyle Pitts, and that's totally understandable. Since coming into the league with high expectations, Pitts has let fantasy owners down every single year. That being said, the upside is worth the risk. Pitts is going at the TE12 range, and you're not going to find a difference maker outside the top five in most seasons. If Pitts can finally break out this season, there's a very good chance he becomes a top three tight end dynasty. Just looking back to November 3rd of 2021, Pitts was able to keep his TE1 status all the way through October 2nd of 2022. When evaluating Pitts as a prospect, he was just as good, if not better, than Brock Bowers, who is the 10th-ranked player (TE1) in dynasty fantasy football. Pitts is a 6'6' and 246 lb tight end who also ran an unofficial 4.44, 40-yard dash. At Florida, Pitts showed that he can play anywhere on the field with elite releases and the ability to high-point the football. With Pitts being a younger prospect, he's still just 24 years old, and tight ends typically take longer to break out due to the complex nature of the position. Now Darnell Mooney is missing valuable time with sophomore quarterback Michael Penix Jr, giving Pitts time to take over that number two target role. It's certainly a risk based on what we've seen from Pitts so far, but the upside is worth it. Outside of Pitts, these last two players are outside of the top 30 tight ends. While Pitts is fairly cheap, these other tight ends are effectively lottery tickets. Michael Mayer is one of the more interesting players in dynasty because he's also only 24 years old. Mayer wasn't an elite prospect, but he was highly talked about and was selected 35th overall in the 2023 NFL Draft. While Mayer got to start 12 games as a rookie, he didn't find much success, only drawing 40 targets, catching 27 of them for 304 yards. Then, just a year later, the Las Vegas Raiders shocked a lot of people by selecting Bowers. We talked about how good Bowers is above, and this move tanked Mayer's dynasty value. Mayer was once the TE8 in dynasty (April 8th, 2023) and has now dropped down to TE33. While Mayer isn't going to overcome Bowers, he's set to become a free agent in 2027, which could lead to the Raiders trading him even sooner than that. If Mayer lands in a new home, he should skyrocket in value as people will remember the prospect that he was at Notre Dame. SYRACUSE, NEW YORK - SEPTEMBER 17: Oronde Gadsden II #19 of the Syracuse Orange scores a touchdown ... More during the fourth quarter against the Purdue Boilermakers at JMA Wireless Dome on September 17, 2022 in Syracuse, New York. (Photo by Bryan M. Bennett/Getty Images) The last player on this list is Oronde Gadsden, a rookie. Gadsden is going just behind Mayer at TE34, but he has the worst draft capital of anyone on this list. Gadsden was a 5th-round pick in the 2025 NFL Draft due to the fact that he's not a typical tight end. At 6'5' and 236 lbs, Gadsden is very undersized in terms of his weight to be an NFL starter. Gadsden fails to pick up blockers due to his size, which is going to limit him in the NFL. That said, Gadsden could be used as a 'big slot,' which would be the best-case scenario for his fantasy football impact. At Syracuse, Gadsden actually started out as a wide receiver, and he caught 61 passes for 975 yards as a sophomore. Gadsden would make the switch just one year later, before only playing in two games during that 2023 season. In 2024, though, Gadsden had 73 catches for 934 yards as a tight end. Gadsden would post a 4.65, 40-yard dash, which helped him score a 'great' composite speed score per his Relative Athletic Score. The Los Angeles Chargers are an offense without an established number two target, which makes Gadsden extremely interesting. Tre Harris and Quentin Johnston are the two main threats right now, but neither has proven themselves yet. With Justin Herbert at the helm, he should be able to get the most out of Gadsden. If Gadsden isn't used correctly, he'll almost certainly flame out, but at cost, he's worth the risk in dynasty fantasy football.
New York Times
2 days ago
- Sport
- New York Times
Falcons still believe in Kyle Pitts, but can he be trusted in fantasy this season?
Kyle Pitts enters the 2025 season as one of the most significant fantasy football question marks, but one thing is a good bet. He will have five touchdown catches. No more. No less. The reasoning for this prediction is that Pitts had one touchdown catch in his rookie season, two in his second season, three in his third season and four last season in his fourth season. It's been just about the only stable thing in the talented tight end's time in the league. Advertisement The Falcons drafted Pitts fourth overall in 2021. It remains the highest a tight end has ever been picked. Since then, he has caught 196 passes for 2,651 yards and 10 total touchdowns. It's not what fantasy managers (or Falcons fans) expected. Pitts is the 13th-highest scoring tight end (based on PPR scoring) since he's been in the league, and the numbers are even worse after subtracting his rookie season, when he had career highs in catches (68) and yards (1,026). In the last three seasons, Pitts is 20th among tight ends in fantasy PPR scoring. After an injury-shortened 2022 season, he was 13th in tight end fantasy scoring in 2023 and 15th last season. OMG KYLE PITTS TD!!! 📺: #ATLvsWAS on NBC/Peacock📱: Stream on #NFLPlus — NFL (@NFL) December 30, 2024 The good news from a fantasy perspective is that Pitts enters the fall as the Falcons' starting tight end, and he's their only option at that position. Atlanta has five other tight ends on the training camp roster. Backup Charlie Woerner has 18 catches in five seasons, and free-agency addition Feleipe Franks has one catch in his career. The other three players are long shots for the 53-man roster. That roster construction illustrates the Falcons' seemingly never-ending patience with Pitts, who will be playing on his fifth-year option this season. Just as he did last offseason, coach Raheem Morris has expressed optimism that Pitts could be on the verge of a breakout. 'He's done such a great job of all the things we have asked him,' Morris said. 'He's been absolutely outstanding to be around.' Pitts was fourth on the team last season with 602 receiving yards and fifth in catches with 47. His reception percentage (catching 47 of 74 targets, 63.5 percent) ranked 30th among tight ends, but the Falcons talk as if they plan for him to be a bigger part of the offense in 2025. Advertisement 'Kyle has always had the same role, as a big-time matchup problem,' Morris said. 'He's one of those guys that, on third down, is absolutely able to move the chains. Most of the time, his big-time role has been in the pass game. 'Last year, he grew a little bit in the run game. He's developed his role as he's gone and become more of a complete tight end. I have a lot of belief in him.' Complicating projections for Pitts is the fact that he sat out minicamp practices due to a foot injury, but he did return for the start of training camp. Pitts will make almost $11 million this season. His market next year, and whether the Falcons will be interested in being a part of it, will be determined mainly by what he does this season, which could serve as motivation for some fantasy managers to draft him, hoping for a contract-year bump. 'He's super talented,' Morris said. 'That's always going to be the thing that gives you hope with Kyle.'
Yahoo
4 days ago
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Kyle Pitts from Falcons Training Camp Kickoff
FOX 5's Buck Lanford and DJ Shockley sit down with Falcons Kyle Pitts with an exclusive interview from Day 1 of training camp 2025.
Yahoo
5 days ago
- Sport
- Yahoo
Fantasy Football NFL Training Camp Roundup: The Kyle Pitts hype-train starts up again, Justin Fields returns and more
Do you smell that? It's football. It feels like every year, we blink in February and bam, it's the end of July and training camps are starting up. It's a beautiful thing really. Teams and players began opening camps this week and we've been getting a flurry of news so far. With that comes the impact that news has on fantasy football and how we approach drafts during August leading up to Week 1. Below is a recap of all the top news stories from this week and how it impacts fantasy football. Fantasy Football NFL Training Camp Roundup Kyle Pitts' hype is back again like a bad horror villain Are we really going to fall for this again? What's the saying? "Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, can't get fooled again." No, that's the George W. Bush quote that's in J. Cole's "No Role Modelz" track. Anyway, Atlanta Falcons' second-year QB Michael Penix Jr. started off his presser at camp on Thursday by saying, "See, we got KP (Pitts) the ball. There's gonna be a lot of that." Here we go again. We've heard this before. The fourth overall pick in the 2021 NFL Draft, Pitts burst on the scene as a freak athlete and touted prospect, going for 1,026 receiving yards and a TD as a rookie. That's when the hype train began. Since then, we've been waiting for Pitts to make due on his potential. He played just 10 games in his second NFL season and only had 356 yards and two TDs. In the past two seasons, he's finished as the TE13 and TE14 in fantasy football. Is the elusive fifth-year breakout coming? Temper your expectations because we've seen this before. However, there's some reason to believe Pitts could have an OK season. Penix showed some promise late last season and could take a big step forward in 2025. Aside from Drake London and Bijan Robinson, Darnell Mooney is the only competition for Pitts in terms of targets. Pitts had 90 and 74 targets, respectively, in the past two seasons. He just wasn't very good at converting those targets. I'm not saying go nuts and reach for Pitts as your TE1. But he's ranked TE20 in Yahoo's consensus rankings going into August. As long as Pitts can stay healthy and the passing game gets going, there's no reason he can't be a decent target as a backup TE on your bench. It won't take a massive jump from what he did last season for Pitts to enter the top-12 TE realm this season. Terry McLaurin holding out Washington Commanders WR Terry McLaurin has decided not to report and is holding out to begin training camp. Here's a quick snippet from Commanders GM Adam Peters on the situation: ESPN's Jeremy Fowler also believes that McLaurin is seeking a deal that would pay him $30 million per season and the two sides aren't close. McLaurin is certainly deserving of a sizable contract as one of the more consistent wideouts in the NFL. He's coming off a fifth consecutive 1,000-yard season with 1,096 and a career-high 13 TDs. McLaurin was far and away rookie QB Jayden Daniels' favorite target all of 2024. It seems foolish not to want to bring back your young QB's top receiver but the NFL is a business. We've still got a ways to go until Week 1 on Sunday, Sept. 7 when the Commanders open the season vs. the New York Giants. So again, it would be surprising to see the two sides not resolve this and hammer out a deal. Washington did bring in veteran WR Deebo Samuel Sr. via trade from the 49ers this offseason. But behind McLaurin and Deebo, there are a lot of question marks as to who would be catching passes. Because of the TDs, McLaurin finished as the WR6 last season in fantasy. This season, McLaurin ranks 17th among wideouts in Yahoo's consensus rankings. His ADP on Yahoo right now is also 35.5, which puts him at around the end of the third round/beginning of the fourth round in 12-team leagues. The TD regression and presence of Deebo is baked into McLaurin's stock going into this season. Monitor the situation, but there's no need to be worried as of now. A lot of question marks surrounding 49ers' WR room We all know that 49ers WR Brandon Aiyuk, coming off a torn ACL/MCL suffered last season, will start 2025 on the PUP list. Ricky Pearsall is dealing with a hamstring injury but should be back at practice soon. Breakout WR Jauan Jennings wants a new deal and could request a trade given his leverage, though he is at camp. And there's always question marks surrounding RB Christian McCaffrey's health. So things are a bit chaotic when it comes to San Francisco's receiver room. So much so that Quintez Cephus and Equanimeous St. Brown have been brought in to compete at camp. Pearsall (WR39, 117.2 ADP) and Jennings (WR40, 108 ADP) should start the season at WR pending these injury/contract situations. So, based on their rankings and ADP, there appears to be some value to be had. We know Aiyuk will be back at some point but in what capacity? Jennings was great last season with 77 catches on 113 targets for 975 yards and six TDs. He finished as the WR27, just shy of a WR2 in 12-team leagues. Pearsall showed some flashes and had 14 catches on 18 targets for 210 yards and two TDs in the final two games of his rookie season. Targeting each late in drafts at their current draft-price tag feels advantageous. CMC is healthy but for how long? And we know how players can perform in a Kyle Shanahan offense. Justin Fields gives us an injury scare The New York Jets feel cursed at times. That's likely how a lot of members of the organization and fans felt when Fields left practice on Thursday due to a toe injury. It turned out to be a dislocated toe and Fields was considered day-to-day. Now, early Friday, we saw Fields out on the practice field running around, looking completely fine: So it seems a crisis has been averted. For now. Fields was brought in this offseason to run the Jets' new offense under first-year head coach Aaron Glenn and OC Tanner Engstrand, coming over from the Lions. Expectations are pretty high for Fields and he's become a trendy sleeper candidate at QB for fantasy football. He'll enter 2025 as a top-10 QB in terms of Yahoo's consensus rankings at ninth at the position. That could change over the course of camp and preseason. But we know the upside Fields brings with his ability to run and extend the play. So we'll want to monitor this situation leading up to Week 1. If you're looking to draft Fields, maybe consider an insurance policy by drafting another capable QB. How will Colts' QB battle shake out? The competition between Daniel Jones and Anthony Richardson Sr. for the starting QB job in Indy is going to be one of the more polarizing stories out of camp. Everyone seems to believe that Jones has the fast-track to being QB1. That was after it was revealed Richardson was dealing with a shoulder injury this spring. Well, Richardson is healthy entering camp but will need to prove himself (again) to earn the role of starter (again). Jones got the early reps as the QB1 to start camp this week. We all know what Richardson can do with his legs but he'll need to prove he can be a capable pocket passer in order to win over head coach Shane Steichen and the rest of the offensive staff. Jones isn't the best passer in the world but should be a clear upgrade over Richardson and some of the starters Indy has used the past few seasons (Joe Flacco, Gardner Minshew, old Matt Ryan). Jones was also coming from a dysfunctional situation with the New York Giants, and even then, he was able to find some success in 2022, finishing as the QB7 in fantasy. This competition is so polarizing for fantasy because it will have a big impact on how we approach the Colts' skill position players. If Jones wins the job (like many believe will be the case), then we can feel good about targeting WRs Michael Pittman Jr. (WR48 rank) and Josh Downs (WR43) as decent sleepers. Alec Pierce (WR71) feels like more of a stretch pending an injury. Rookie TE Tyler Warren (TE16) would also be a good sleeper target if you're waiting on the position. If Richardson is the starting QB, all bets are off. It would be difficult to trust the Colts' receivers and, really, RB Jonathan Taylor (RB7) would be the only player we'd feel comfortable drafting. We know Taylor will handle the bulk of the carries but even he has injury concerns. Now that you think about it, the entire situation in Indianapolis feels pretty volatile. Keep an eye on this QB comp going into your draft but fading may be the way to go. Tyreek Hill-Tua Tagovailoa mending relationship We all remember the offseason saga where WR Tyreek Hill said "I'm out" as a declaration he wanted out of Miami. Hill wasn't traded this offseason and he and QB Tua Tagovailoa are at training camp working on their relationship. Tua said "It's a work in progress" and that Hill is "working on himself." It may take some time for the two to get back on the same page; Samantha James did say, "Forgiveness is more than saying sorry." We'll see if the two can rekindle some of the chemistry that led to that 2023 season, when Hill led the NFL in receiving yards with a career-high 1,799 and 13 TDs (also NFL-leading). Tagovailoa would lead the NFL in passing yards (4,626) that season and finish as the QB10 overall in fantasy. Tua has been through A LOT with concussion issues since then so it's unclear if he'll ever be able to push the ball downfield for Hill like that again. Hill had his worst NFL season since he was a rookie in 2024, finishing with 959 yards and six TDs, barely inside the top-20 among wideouts. Hill enters 2025 as the WR18 in Yahoo's consensus rankings and even that feels generous. If any more drama comes out of Dolphins' training camp, this situation could blow up very quickly. A trade might be the best thing for both sides in the end but we'll see what develops. If Tua and Hill can get on the same page and Hill continues to fall down draft boards, it could create a better situation for fantasy managers. Jaylen Waddle (WR29 rank, 84.9 ADP) may be a better option given his draft-price tag.
Yahoo
7 days ago
- Sport
- Yahoo
LOOK: Falcons players arrive for start of NFL training camp
The long NFL offseason is officially over now that the Atlanta Falcons have kicked off training camp for the 2025 season. Players began arriving at the team's Flowery Branch training facility on Wednesday morning and will hold their first practice on Thursday. Some big names, including quarterback Michael Penix Jr., running back Bijan Robinson and tight end Kyle Pitts, are already in the building. The Falcons have plenty of work to do if they're going to finally end their seven-year postseason drought, and it all begins at training camp. Watch below as Penix, Robinson, and others arrive for the start of camp. QB Michael Penix Jr. RB Bijan Robinson TE Kyle Pitts S DeMarcco Hellams WR Drake London This article originally appeared on Falcons Wire: Atlanta Falcons: Michael Penix, Bijan Robinson arrive at training camp
