The Atlanta Falcons will have Kyle Pitts at least one more season after deciding to use the franchise tag on the tight end they selected with the fourth pick in the 2021 NFL Draft, a league source confirmed to The Athletic on Monday.
The franchise tag will cost the team around $16.5 million, all of which will count against the 2026 salary cap.
Pitts was ranked No. 15 overall and the top tight end on The Athletic’s list of the top 150 impending free agents. When the Falcons made Pitts the highest-drafted tight end in league history, he was expected to become the new prototype for what the tight end position might be.
Things started smoothly enough as he became just the second tight end in history to top 1,000 receiving yards as a rookie (1,026), but an MCL tear ended his second season after 10 games.
After coming back from that injury, Pitts had back-to-back disappointing seasons, failing to reach 700 receiving yards in both 2023 and 2024. He found his stride again in 2025, recording 928 yards and a career-high five touchdowns. It was a tantalizing taste of what the 6-foot-6, 250-pounder still might be able to do, and he’s still only 25 years old. Kansas City Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce was 24 years old when he caught his first NFL touchdown.
Pitts plans to attend the Tight End University camp this summer for the first time in three years and has said all the right things about continuing to reach his potential.
“You never arrive,” he said late in the NFL season. “Each year, you keep getting better. I’m on the younger side, so there’s a lot of growing to do.”
Pitts said in late December that he would “love” to stay in Atlanta, where he has 284 catches for 3,579 yards and 15 touchdowns in his career. He is ninth in receiving yards and 20th in touchdown catches among tight ends in the last five seasons.
“I don’t think about the money. I don’t think about contracts,” he said. “I think about being here in the moment with my teammates and my brothers because I see these guys every day. Whatever happens in the future, happens.”
Pitts’ strong close to the season and the hiring of head coach Kevin Stefanski, who has described himself as a tight end “aficionado,” likely cemented Atlanta’s desire to keep him in town for at least one more season.
From Week 12 through Week 15 last season, Pitts had 31 catches for 395 yards, which was the best four-game stretch of his career and the most yards by any Atlanta tight end over four games. In Week 14 alone, he had a career-high 11 catches for 166 yards and three touchdowns against Tampa Bay.
“You are not looking at stats, you’re just focusing on pushing the ball down the field and scoring. When they tell you the stats at the end of the game, it’s like, ‘Oh, that did happen,’” Pitts said of that breakout game. “It’s like, ‘Damn, that was a pretty good one.’”
The Falcons and Pitts still could work out a long-term extension before the 2026 season if both sides are amenable.