Kyle Pitts — Week 2: One Catch on Three Targets
2026 NFL Season · Half-PPR Scoring · Monday, Sep 21
Pitts was thrown to three times and caught one, a 15-yarder on first and fifteen in the second quarter. The other two were a third-and-five incompletion and the interception Devin Lloyd returned 53 yards with 7:13 left in the third, Cooper Rush's last throw of the day. He also had a false start, in a 34–3 loss to the Panthers.
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27 to three, Panthers, seven 13 left in the third quarter, second and six at the Carolina 38. Cooper Rush threw short right for Kyle Pitts, 11 yards in the air, and Devin Lloyd intercepted it at the Carolina 27 and returned it 53 yards to the Atlanta 20, where Drake London made the tackle. −8.0 expected points added — expected points added is what a play was worth given down, distance and field position — the worst pass or run of the game for either side by that measure. It was Rush's last throw. Jack Strand threw Atlanta's next pass.
The line: three targets, one catch, 15 yards, one first down, −8.3 expected points on the targets, nearly all of it the interception. The incompletion was third and five at the Atlanta 21 with seven 34 left in the first quarter, down seven, short right, Jaycee Horn credited on the play, and Atlanta punted. The catch was first and 15 at the Atlanta 18 with three 53 left in the second, down 13: short right, 11 yards in the air, pushed out at the 33. It was first and 15 because of his own false start on the snap before. That drive ended in Atlanta's only points, a 41-yard field goal. He was also in on the tackle after Bobby Okereke's first-quarter interception.
Two targets before halftime, one after, all three from Rush. Strand threw 15 times and none went to Pitts; four went to Austin Hooper. Three targets on Atlanta's 32 throws, against five for London and four each for Bijan Robinson, Jahan Dotson and Hooper.
Back in June the preview called Pitts a second-team All-Pro priced as the seventh tight end — second among tight ends last season on a hundred 18 targets across 17 games, about seven a game. Week 1 was one target and no catches. Sunday was three and one. Four targets in two games, one catch, 15 yards. The quarterbacks the preview had in mind, Tua Tagovailoa and Michael Penix, have been inactive both weeks, per the Falcons' inactives list, so the contradiction is two weeks old and still cannot be separated from who is throwing. Atlanta is at the Packers on Thursday the 20-fourth, a short week.
_Data via nflverse._
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