Kyle Pitts Fantasy Football Start or Sit Advice for Week 3

Kyle Pitts Start or Sit Advice for Week 3

Kyle Pitts has been a fantasy football hot topic since the Falcons took him with the No. 4 overall pick in the 2021 NFL Draft. He has the raw skills to be a starter and produce great numbers, but he has often failed to live up to his potential. The 25-year-old had his best season of his career in 2025, but he has started this year incredibly slow. With a midweek matchup against the Packers on Thursday night of Week 3, does it make sense to start Kyle Pitts again this week, or should you banish him to the bench in favor of another option?

Last year, Pitts had 88 catches on 118 targets for 928 yards and five touchdowns. It was the most catches, targets and touchdowns he ever had in a season, and he finished just short of his 1,026 yards from his rookie season. Most of that work was with Michael Penix Jr. at quarterback. Penix will be back under center this week for the Falcons, who started Cooper Rush in the first two weeks of the year.

Pitts had no catches at all in Week 1 against the Steelers and only one catch for 15 yards in Week 2 against the Panthers. He didn’t show much of a connection with Rush, but will a change to Penix be able to jump-start his season?

In the 14 games Pitts played with Penix over the last two seasons, Pitts averaged just 3.8 catches for 36.8 yards and had only two touchdowns in those 14 games. Penix has historically focused heavily on Drake London, who is in for a bigger boost than Pitts with Penix re-emerging.

The Falcons did make a big deal this week of getting Pitts more involved, with offensive coordinator Tommy Rees specifically calling out the need to get Pitts involved.

Even with the added focus, starting Pitts this week is still very high-risk. Most standard-sized leagues probably have a better option on the waiver wire, but in deep leagues, it makes sense to give him at least one week with a more aggressive QB to see if he can get going. Ideally, stashing him to see this week while playing a short-term option like Dalton Schultz would make sense, although Schultz may not be available after last week’s big game. Other tight ends who may be on your waiver wire that I would play ahead of Pitts this week include Pat Freiermuth of the Steelers against the Bengals and Oronde Gadsden II of the Chargers, now that he has a clearer path to playing time.

Start or Sit: Sit Kyle Pitts