{"id":213698,"date":"2025-01-30T15:00:07","date_gmt":"2025-01-30T20:00:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/?p=213698"},"modified":"2025-01-30T09:18:54","modified_gmt":"2025-01-30T14:18:54","slug":"kyle-pitts-trade-falcons-next-teams","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/2025\/01\/30\/kyle-pitts-trade-falcons-next-teams\/","title":{"rendered":"Report: &#8220;Keep An Eye On&#8221; Falcons Trading Top-Five Pick To Chargers, Patriots, Panthers"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Atlanta Falcons tight end Kyle Pitts has not lived up to his pre-draft hype, and one report indicates the team could trade him in the offseason. Selected with the fourth-overall pick in the 2021 <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/category\/nfl-draft\/\" target=\"_self\">NFL Draft<\/a>, Pitts was supposed to be one of the greatest tight end prospects in NFL history. He played up to his billing as a rookie, recording 1,026 yards and one touchdown in 17 games, but he&#8217;s never come close to recapturing that magic. Plagued by drops and inconsistent effort, the Falcons might be done with the player they chose over Ja&#8217;Marr Chase.<\/p>\n<p>Prior to 2024, one could blame Pitts&#8217; lack of production on former <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/2024\/01\/08\/atlanta-falcons-fire-arthur-smith\/\" target=\"_self\">head coach Arthur Smith<\/a>. Infamous for overlooking his highly-drafted players, analysts across the league believed Pitts, Drake London, and Bijan Robinson could break out under Atlanta&#8217;s new regime. Unfortunately, that didn&#8217;t happen, as the tight end finished 2024 with just 47 receptions for 602 yards and four touchdowns. Now,\u00a0<a  href=\"https:\/\/bleacherreport.com\/videos\/650528-kyle-pitts-trade-possibilities\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><em>Bleacher Report<\/em>&#8216;s James Palmer<\/a> believes the Falcons will try and trade Kyle Pitts during the offseason.<\/p>\n<p>Even though Kyle Pitts hasn&#8217;t met Atlanta&#8217;s expectations, some team will probably try and take a risk on him. After all, he was a consensus top-five pick for a reason, and his rookie season showed what he can do when everything goes right. While the Falcons probably won&#8217;t get anything more than a third-round pick for his services, the Los Angeles Chargers, New England Patriots, and Carolina Panthers could be the best fits.<\/p>\n<h2>Report: Falcons Could Trade Kyle Pitts In the Offseason<\/h2>\n<p>The Los Angeles Chargers need more weapons to support star quarterback Justin Herbert properly. While the team earned a playoff spot in 2023, their poor weapons prevented them from going on a deep playoff run. Justin Herbert didn&#8217;t have his best game against Houston, but he wasn&#8217;t nearly as bad as his box score would suggest. While <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/2024\/11\/20\/ladd-mcconkey-chargers-wide-receiver-dynasty-outlook\/\" target=\"_self\">second-round pick Ladd McConkey<\/a> looks like a star in the making, the Chargers need another starting-caliber pass-catcher.<\/p>\n<p>While the team will probably target a wide receiver like <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/2025\/01\/29\/chargers-bengals-linked-in-tee-higgins-contract\/\" target=\"_self\">Tee Higgins in free agency<\/a>, Los Angeles should improve the tight end room. Will Dissly was the only consistent player at the position last year, and he&#8217;s nothing more than a replacement-level journeyman. Perhaps Kyle Pitts never plays up to his potential, but the trade candidate could be a high-upside option for a team that desperately needs weapons to compete in a crowded AFC West.<\/p>\n<h3>Other Fits<\/h3>\n<p>The New England Patriots need help at every position outside of quarterback. While the offensive line will be the primary focus, someone must catch passes from <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/2024\/10\/07\/drake-mayes-dynasty-value-and-health-needs-protected\/\" target=\"_self\">Pro Bowler Drake Maye<\/a>. Hunter Henry is a fine veteran, but the former second-round pick isn&#8217;t getting any younger and doesn&#8217;t give the team much upside. With Austin Hooper set to depart in free agency, the Patriots could shoot for the stars and try to capture some magic with a Kyle Pitts trade.<\/p>\n<p>The Atlanta Falcons probably don&#8217;t want to trade Kyle Pitts to a division rival, but the tight end might not have a bustling market. If the Panthers are making the best offer, the Falcons could swallow their pride and face off against the Florida product twice a year. <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/2024\/02\/18\/jatavion-sanders-nfl-draft-profile\/\" target=\"_self\">Fourth-round pick Ja&#8217;Tavion Sanders<\/a> showed promise as a rookie, but he shouldn&#8217;t be the sole option in this passing attack. Pitts could provide some stability to the position and offers a tremendous amount of upside.<\/p>\n<p><em>Main Photo: Geoff Burke &#8211; USA Today Sports<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>After four somewhat disappointing seasons, the Atlanta Falcons could trade Kyle Pitts during the offseason.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2376,"featured_media":213704,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[27,18],"tags":[7727,7642,7312,7661],"class_list":["post-213698","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-falcons","category-chargers","tag-atlanta-falcons-news","tag-chargers-featured","tag-kyle-pitts","tag-panthers-featured"],"modified_by":"David Latham, Managing Editor","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/213698","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2376"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=213698"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/213698\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":213716,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/213698\/revisions\/213716"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/213704"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=213698"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=213698"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=213698"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}