Kyle Pitts is entering his sixth NFL season and is once again a popular name in fantasy circles. He finished last season inside the top five at his position, but there is more going on beneath that number than most people realize. Should fantasy managers be drafting Pitts in 2026?
Should You Draft Kyle Pitts Sr. in Fantasy Football?
Let’s start with Pitts’ ADP, which is 71.2 in PFN’s Free Fantasy Mock Draft Simulator. His positional rank checks in at TE9, which is a consensus of me and my colleague Kyle Soppe. We have him projected at 10.49 fantasy points per game.
That 10.49 number is pretty much what you expect from any back-end TE1 streamer-type player. Every year there are roughly 10 to 15 tight ends in that 9 to 11 fantasy points per game range, and you can find that pretty easily. For us to want to target a tight end, he needs to have that difference-making upside.
On the surface, if you look at what Pitts did last season, you might think he does. He averaged 12.4 fantasy points per game. All of his supporters will point out that he was an afterthought, written off. He was the TE26, TE16, and TE22 the previous three seasons. Of course, it was over for Pitts. Then he posts an overall TE4 season in fantasy points per game. That’s it. We should draft him. Case closed.
Not exactly. We all remember how last season played out. Pitts had that epic 45.6 outing in Week 15. I hate to be the person who says, “Yeah, but if you remove that game,” because all of those weeks need to count. You can’t just remove a player’s best outing and evaluate him without it when you’re considering all of his not-as-great performances. But it’s important to note that Pitts averaged 10.3 fantasy points per game last season other than in Week 15. He was your standard random streamer-quality back-end TE1 except for the Week 15 outing.
Additionally, there was the factor of Drake London being hurt. Last season, Pitts played 5 games without Drake London and averaged 19 fantasy points per game. In his other 12 games, he averaged 9.6 fantasy points per game. Now we have another sample, another data set that shows Pitts is pretty much just your random TE1 or TE2 type streamer at around 10 fantasy points per game.
Yet he’s being taken as a firm top 8 to 10 tight end this season, and fantasy managers seem to be viewing him as somebody who has upside. If we’re concerned about what this offense is going to look like for potentially Drake London and Bijan Robinson, how are we not concerned about Pitts? What we want to see from tight ends is that they are at least the second option in their team’s passing attack. When Bijan and London are both healthy, Pitts is third. The third option in this Falcons passing attack is not necessarily somebody I’m really excited about.
I’d be perfectly fine taking a shot on Pitts if he was late, if he was going in the same area as Travis Kelce or Dallas Goedert or those other boring later tight ends, but he isn’t. He goes at somewhat of a premium spot. He’s going right near Harold Fannin and George Kittle, who I think both have higher upside than Pitts.
Of course, if London gets hurt, it changes the narrative, but we can’t really bank on a London injury. The splits with Drake London, combined with the singular one-week skewing of last year’s total, have me out on Pitts this season. Let someone else pay up for him. I’m waiting further on tight end if I don’t take Brock Bowers.
FANTASY RANKINGS: PFN’s FREE Fantasy PPR, Half-PPR, and Non-PPR Rankings
Kyle Pitts Sr.’s Week 1 Fantasy Outlook
Analysis provided by PFN Analyst Kyle Soppe.
Pitts posted 8 TE1 finishes last season, a monster number all things considered with this offense. That season was highlighted by 4 straight such finishes from Week 13 to 16, and that has him sitting in the good graces of fantasy managers.
The pass game is still below average, though a quick-strike attack does project well for an impressive athlete like this. If you roster him, you’re playing him because you shouldn’t have a secondary option on your roster.
Am I thrilled about playing him with us being a bit blind as to what this offense looks like under Tua Tagovailoa? I’m not, but there aren’t 10 TEs who project better this week, and that has me trusting what I view as a reasonably safe 5- to 7-target role, even if the touchdown equity is spotty at best.
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Where Pitts Ranks Among 2026 Tight Ends
- Tucker Kraft | GB
- Tyler Warren | IND
- Sam LaPorta | DET
- George Kittle | SF
- Harold Fannin Jr. | CLE
- Kyle Pitts Sr. | ATL
- Dalton Kincaid | BUF
- Isaiah Likely | NYG
- Juwan Johnson | NO
- Jake Ferguson | DAL
- Dallas Goedert | PHI
Compare him against the rest of the board in PFN's Full PPR Tight End Rankings.
