{"id":722117,"date":"2026-06-23T23:31:10","date_gmt":"2026-06-23T23:31:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/722117\/"},"modified":"2026-06-23T23:31:10","modified_gmt":"2026-06-23T23:31:10","slug":"falcons-tight-end-kyle-pitts-agree-to-3-year-contract-extension","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/722117\/","title":{"rendered":"Falcons, tight end Kyle Pitts agree to 3-year contract extension"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Atlanta Falcons are staying in the Kyle Pitts business. Five years after making Pitts the highest-drafted tight end in NFL history, the Falcons on Tuesday re-signed the 6-foot-6, 250-pounder to a three-year, $54 million contract extension, according to his agency<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Pitts is now the third-highest-paid tight end in the NFL in terms of average annual value at $18 million, behind the San Francisco 49ers\u2019 George Kittle ($19.1 million) and the Arizona Cardinals\u2019 Trey McBride ($19 million).<\/p>\n

An extension for Pitts, 25, was not a foregone conclusion at the beginning of the offseason.<\/p>\n

First-year general manager Ian Cunningham placed the franchise tag on Pitts<\/a> in February, which locked in the tight end to play this season on a one-year, $15 million deal, but Cunningham never ruled out the possibility of trading Pitts if the right offer came along. However, first-year Falcons coach Kevin Stefanski expressed optimism about Pitts\u2019 potential in his offense.<\/p>\n

\u201cKyle is working like crazy, takes coaching. Obviously the physical skill set is obvious on the field,\u201d Stefanski said recently. \u201cWe\u2019re asking him to do a couple of new things. As players continue in their careers, you want to find out, \u2018What else is in there?\u2019 What can we help them with? Kyle\u2019s been outstanding in that regard. He\u2019s trying to be the best version of himself.<\/p>\n

He\u2019s had some great, great, great moments in his career, and we\u2019re trying to build off those.\u201d<\/p>\n

In his first five seasons with the Falcons, Pitts showed flashes of the talent that caused ESPN draft analyst Mel Kiper to label him the No. 2 prospect in the 2021 draft class behind only quarterback Trevor Lawrence. Pitts, the No. 4 pick, delivered a then-NFL tight end rookie record 1,026 receiving yards in his first season and had 928 yards with a career-high 88 receptions and five touchdowns last season, but the three years in between were rocky.<\/p>\n

Pitts suffered an MCL injury in 2022 that seemed to linger into 2023, and he averaged 542 yards and three touchdown catches from 2022 to 2024.<\/p>\n

However, since being drafted, Pitts is still fourth in the NFL among tight ends with 3,579 receiving yards and is coming off a solid season that he is hoping to build on.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou never arrive,\u201d Pitts said near the end of the season. \u201cEach year you keep getting better. I\u2019m on the younger side, so there\u2019s a lot of growing to do.\u201d<\/p>\n

To that end, Pitts said the new coaching staff is helping him evolve his game.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019d say they are adding more tools to my toolbox,\u201d Pitts said recently. \u201c(They\u2019re) letting me do a couple more things in terms of route-running and schematically and to be an asset in this offense.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Falcons have now locked up Pitts and\u00a0star wide receiver Drake London<\/a> this offseason. Next on their to-do list could be running back Bijan Robinson.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Atlanta Falcons are staying in the Kyle Pitts business. Five years after making Pitts the highest-drafted tight…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":722118,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[67],"tags":[1327,399,398,396,397,349,99],"class_list":["post-722117","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-ncaa-football","tag-atlanta-falcons","tag-football","tag-ncaa","tag-ncaa-football","tag-ncaafootball","tag-nfl","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/722117","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=722117"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/722117\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/722118"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=722117"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=722117"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=722117"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}