Kyle Pitts is supposed to be the next big thing at tight end – a mismatch nightmare who can look like Calvin Johnson went he splits out wide. But how long are we supposed to wait for the dividends to kick in? We’re into his third season, and he’s still more of a prospect rather than an actual producer.
Pitts went for 1,026 yards as a rookie, which was reasonable enough. But he caught only one touchdown that year, and he caught fewer than 4 passes in seven games.
Rather than breaking out in his second year, Pitts instead got worse. Before missing the final six games with a knee injury, Pitts caught only 28 passes for 356 yards and 2 TDs. He caught more than 3 passes in only two of his 10 games, and he caught only 47 percent of the passes thrown his way, the worst catch rate by a tight end with at least 50 targets in over 10 years.
We’re only a quarter of the way into the 2023 season, but things are looking similar. Pitts has caught only 2 passes in three of his four games, and he hasn’t gotten in the end zone. That leaves him at 3 touchdowns in 31 games as a pro.
Pitts has been held back by bad quarterbacking. Marcus Mariota was pretty awful last year. And Desmond Ridder doesn’t look like he’s going to be much of an upgrade. In four games, Ridder has gone 11 of 21 passing to Pitts, for 121 yards.
But there’s also the issue of Arthur Smith’s offense. While Smith picked Pitts with the 4th pick of the 2021 draft, he doesn’t seem to have any interest in using him much. In each of Smith’s first two seasons, a different tight end on the team (Hayden Hurst, MyCole Pruitt) has caught 2 more touchdowns than Pitts. And this year another tight end (Jonnu Smith) has caught 4 more passes in the first month of the season.
It's ridiculous.
It leaves those in dynasty leagues wondering whether to wait for Pitts’ talent to emerge, or simply to move on to somebody else. For me, I think I’d rather have an old guy who’s good right now (Mark Andrews, Travis Kelce), figuring out the 2026 and 2027 seasons later. And I see a couple of young tight ends (Sam LaPorta, Dalton Kincaid) that have been good enough in their first month that I’m ready to put them ahead of Pitts. Maybe Luke Musgrave should e in that group as well.
Below see my revised top 40 tight ends for dynasty leagues. For this exercise, I’m assuming a 12-team league using PPR scoring, with franchises holding the rights to players indefinitely. So you’re trying to balance how good a player is right now while also mulling what he might be in the next few years.
I’m working under the assumption that the 12 teams are each carrying about three tight ends. So I would have some willingness to use one of my three tight end slots on a player who isn’t much of a factor right now (specifically, #19 Michael Mayer, #31 Jelani Woods, #33 Luke Schoonmaker).
Rookies tagged with black dots.
I turn my attention to dynasty leagues every Saturday during the regular season, rotating between the four notable positions. To see the most-recent lists at other positions, use the “Past Issues” navigation box on this page.
Last week: Wide receivers
Next week: Quarterbacks.
| DYNASTY TIGHT ENDS | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Rk | Tm | Player | Age |
| 1. | BAL | Mark Andrews | 28.1 |
| 2. | MIN | T.J. Hockenson | 26.3 |
| 3. | DET | • Sam LaPorta | 22.7 |
| 4. | KC | Travis Kelce | 34.0 |
| 5. | CHI | Cole Kmet | 24.6 |
| 6. | BUF | • Dalton Kincaid | 24.0 |
| 7. | ATL | Kyle Pitts | 23.0 |
| 8. | JAC | Evan Engram | 29.1 |
| 9. | PHI | Dallas Goedert | 28.8 |
| 10. | SF | George Kittle | 30.0 |
| 11. | GB | • Luke Musgrave | 23.1 |
| 12. | DAL | Jake Ferguson | 24.7 |
| 13. | CLE | David Njoku | 27.2 |
| 14. | NE | Hunter Henry | 28.8 |
| 15. | WAS | Logan Thomas | 32.3 |
| 16. | PIT | Pat Freiermuth | 25.0 |
| 17. | NYG | Darren Waller | 31.1 |
| 18. | DEN | Greg Dulcich | 23.5 |
| 19. | LV | • Michael Mayer | 22.3 |
| 20. | HOU | Dalton Schultz | 27.2 |
| 21. | LAR | Tyler Higbee | 30.8 |
| 22. | ARI | Zach Ertz | 32.9 |
| 23. | TEN | Chigoziem Okonkwo | 24.1 |
| 24. | TB | Cade Otton | 24.5 |
| 25. | IND | Kylen Granson | 25.5 |
| 26. | BUF | Dawson Knox | 26.9 |
| 27. | NO | Juwan Johnson | 27.1 |
| 28. | CAR | Hayden Hurst | 30.1 |
| 29. | SEA | Noah Fant | 25.9 |
| 30. | CIN | Irv Smith | 25.2 |
| 31. | IND | Jelani Woods | 25.0 |
| 32. | LAC | Gerald Everett | 29.3 |
| 33. | DAL | • Luke Schoonmaker | 25.0 |
| 34. | NYJ | Tyler Conklin | 28.2 |
| 35. | ATL | Jonnu Smith | 28.1 |
| 36. | BAL | Isaiah Likely | 23.5 |
| 37. | KC | Noah Gray | 24.4 |
| 38. | ARI | Trey McBride | 23.9 |
| 39. | NE | Mike Gesicki | 28.0 |
| 40. | BAL | Charlie Kolar | 24.7 |
—Ian Allan