How a midseason meeting changed Kyle Pitts’ season and his Falcons trajectory

FLOWERY BRANCH — It all started with a closed-door conversation and the self awareness to know things needed to change.

After the Falcons returned home from a 24-10 win over the Saints in Week 12 last season, Kyle Pitts initiated a sit-down meeting with tight ends coach Kevin Koger. They discussed what Pitts could do better and how Koger could help him do it.

Pitts was in the midst of a rut — he was held to two receptions apiece in three straight games and hadn’t eclipsed 40 receiving yards in close to a month — and the Saints game was his final straw. Pitts ran an out-breaking route, created separation and dropped a pass the Falcons expected him to catch.

Their star tight end had enough.

By this point, Pitts was months removed from the time he talked to himself in a mirror and decided, after years of injuries and quarterback inconsistency and roller-coaster production, he alone controlled his destiny. So, why not seize it?

“You have the opportunity to do something,” Pitts said to himself. “Just do it. It’s up to you.”

Pitts finally took his own advice in late November. The meeting with Koger proved a turning point.

“His play after that,” Koger said, “did that.” He started his hand level before pointing his fingers toward the sky, like a soaring stock market.

Later that week, Pitts set a season high with 82 receiving yards, catching seven of his eight targets in a 27-24 loss to the Jets. He topped it again the week after, notching 90 yards on six catches in a loss to the Seahawks.

Then came the best game of Pitts’ professional career.

The 2021 first-round pick caught 11 passes for 166 yards and three touchdowns while the Falcons beat the Buccaneers 29-28 in Tampa, Florida. All three were career bests. He carried the momentum through a solid three-game sprint to the finish line, putting an exclamation point on a brilliant midseason turnaround.

Entering his meeting with Koger, Pitts had 49 catches for 459 yards and a touchdown through the season’s first 11 games. In the six games thereafter, he made 39 receptions for 469 yards and four touchdowns. He played five fewer games, yet made only 10 fewer catches and had 10 more yards and three more scores.

Pitts left New Orleans feeling as if he was below the standard, set nearly as high as his 6-foot-6, 250-pound unicorn frame can reach. Issues were all-encompassing between mental and physical challenges. Then, after a heart-to-heart with Koger, everything changes.

“What he expects out of himself, what we expect out of him — he knew that he was below that bar,” Koger said Monday. “But we got him to where he needed to be, and it was a testament to him and him having that awareness of where he wants to be and where he needs to be.”

Pitts finished the season with 88 receptions, the 10th-most in the league and second-best among tight ends. He compiled 928 receiving yards, which also ranked second at his position behind the Cardinals’ Trey McBride.

All told, Pitts resurrected his career arc in 2025. After a Pro Bowl rookie season in 2021 validated the hype for the highest-drafted tight end in league history, Pitts battled highs and lows over the next three years — and the first 11 games of the fourth.

Pitts set career highs in catches and touchdowns last season, vaulting his stock in a contract year. The Falcons didn’t let Pitts hit free agency this spring, instead placing the franchise tag on the 25-year-old.

‘Working like crazy’

One year after getting the fifth-year option attached to his rookie contract, Pitts views the franchise tag as a sixth-year option — and perhaps more importantly, he chose to take the positive in a situation that has, for others around the league, created tension in the past.

“It’s a blessing to be able to get that year and them not say, ‘Well, you can go test the market,’” Pitts said in May. “They trusted that, ‘We see something in you.’ It’s pretty cool to see. It’s a new year, and I’m not worried about it. It’s already signed, and it’s going to be cool. It’s going to be a great year.”

Pitts finds himself in an advantageous situation entering this fall. New Falcons coach Kevin Stefanski was once the Vikings’ tight ends coach for two years, while offensive coordinator Tommy Rees coached the position in 2024 with the Browns.

Stefanski is a self-proclaimed tight end aficionado, and he’s quickly becoming a Pitts aficionado, too.

“Kyle’s a guy that is here working like crazy,” Stefanski said in May. “Takes coaching. Obviously, the physical skill set is obvious when Kyle’s on the field, with how big he is and how he moves. But I’ve been impressed with what we’re asking him to do, a couple new things for him.

“As your players continue on in their career, you want to find out more — what else is in there and what else can we do, and what can we help you with? So, I think Kyle’s been outstanding in that regard of trying to continue to get better in so many areas.”

The Falcons’ new offense under Stefanski and Rees has a lot of flexibility within it, Pitts said. Naturally, the former Florida standout has tried to become more versatile, too. He’s added more tools to his toolbox, be it with his route running or schematically being able to fill different roles in the offense.

Pitts was busy this offseason. He played a lot of golf early in the spring, but he was focused on getting stronger and faster. He’s been too caught up in all of it — the physical and mental gains, learning the new playbook, adapting to a new regime — to think about the season that corrected his NFL path.

The other aspect, of course, is Pitts wanted to make the playoffs. Koger would’ve enjoyed Pitts’ breakthrough more, too, if a trip to the postseason accompanied it. Why revel in a year so personally successful if it ended unfulfilled for the team?

For that reason, Pitts and Koger, closer than ever, still haven’t talked about 2025.

“For him and his personal development and the strides he took last year, they were awesome to see,” Koger said. “But we haven’t talked about that once so far this year. So, the standard is the standard. What we did last year was awesome, but now: new regime, new head coach, new offense.

“So, there’s a lot of things we’re working on now that 2025 is so far out of our mind, out of our thought process — it’s in the back mirror now.”

Pitts, whose rare combination of physical and athletic traits earned him the nickname “Unicorn” out of college, has added another title: veteran leader.

That sparked from a conversation with Koger, too. Koger has an oft-used catchphrase: Be an all-star human on and off the field. It’s stuck with Pitts. He tries to do it every day. It’s made him a better player and a better person.

The Falcons’ new regime has inherited a matured, refined version of Pitts, one that has impressed the staff and has his arrow pointing upward entering this fall.

“Kyle’s been a really good player in this league for a number of years now,” Rees said. “He’s coming off a great season where he’s shown where his talent is and what his level of commitment is. He’s pushing the guys around him.

“Obviously, you’ve seen him have success, and we’re excited for all the different ways to use him. Kyle’s a great example of the buy-in being extremely high level right now.”

Pitts’ midseason revitalization coincided with receiver Drake London’s four-game injury absence. For the Falcons’ offense to reach its potential, Pitts and London must complement each other.

Koger noted production inconsistency isn’t always controlled by Pitts. Sometimes, game flow and game plan construction take away opportunities. Others, he may be the first read in a progression, but the defense takes away his route.

Thus, a statistically similar 2026 isn’t a guarantee. But the Falcons learned plenty about Pitts last year.