Falcons Take Pitts Where Do We Go From Here?
NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell with fourth overall selection, Kyle Pitts. (via USA TODAY Sports)
After much speculation on what the Atlanta Falcons would do, should do and can do with their fourth overall selection in the 2021 NFL Draft, they selected tight end, Kyle Pitts, from the University of Florida.
This comes as a surprise to some as many expected and or hoped they’d take the hometown kid in Justin Fields who is from Kennesaw, Georgia, and played at the University of Georgia before transferring to Ohio State. Many saw Fields as the perfect replacement for Matt Ryan as the team hasn’t had a winning record the past three seasons after the epic Super Bowl collapse against the New England Patriots in 2017.
The Falcons are in a difficult situation with Ryan. The way that his contract is set up, it would be foolish for the team to move him at any time within the next two years. While the Falcons are currently in cap hell, trading or releasing him would be a severe cap hit for the team and they would essentially end up paying him not to play on their team, very similar to what the Philadelphia Eagles are doing this season with Carson Wentz.
This was on the mind of the new regime in Atlanta as they recently cleaned house in the front office and on the field by firing head coach Dan Quinn and general manager Thomas Dimitroff.
The new regime in Atlanta is headlined by head coach Arthur Smith and general manager Terry Fontenot. Smith comes in as an offensive-minded coach as the team was a top-five passing team last season under interim head coach Raheem Morris after the firing of Quinn. Atlanta has had a coach with a defensive background for the entirety of Ryan’s tenure with the team. The Selection of the generational offensive talent in Kyle Pittsshows how Smith and the Falcons are looking to be all-in on Ryan without particularly needing to embrace a complete rebuild.
This does raise a problem, however, as the defense was by far one of the worst in the league last season, and to add insult to injury, they lost both of their starting safeties, Keanu Neal and Ricardo Allen, in free agency this offseason. This takes a team that was already in a bad situation and makes it even worse, with so many holes to fill on the defensive side of the ball.
It seems as though the mindset is to crush opponents with their offensive firepower and try to outduel whoever they are playing.
The weapons at Ryan’s disposal are pretty good.
This season's offense could potentially match the 2016 offense that went to the Super Bowl and pushed Matt Ryan forward as the MVP of the league that season. With Calvin Ridley, Julio Jones, Hayden Hurts and now Kyle Pitts, this passing offense will be scary.
These next two seasons are going to be crucial for Atlanta in terms of success on the field as well as success in the Draft.
The Falcons are going to have to hit on a very high percentage of players as they don’t have very much wiggle room to sign any free agents going forwards and now have a narrow window for error as Ryan is 36 years old and isn’t getting any younger, or cheaper.