The Atlanta Falcons won a pivotal matchup with the New Orleans on Sunday, but the offense sputtered and failed to score a single touchdown on the afternoon. One of the key culprits in their struggles, both today and throughout the young season, has been the play of Kyle Pitts, who failed to record a single catch in the win.
Falcons coach Raheem Morris was asked about lack of production and gave a matter-of-fact, "Stats are for losers" response. The Steakhouse discussed the comments and their feelings about the continuously disappointing performance from Pitts.
"You have a tight end that you drafted fourth overall that gives you next to nothing all year," Steak said about the play of the Falcons tight end. "There are 20 tight ends who have put up better numbers than Kyle Pitts at this point. You have to start recognizing that the six catch, two touchdown game is not coming."
Pitts was only targeted three times on Sunday, and he failed to corral any of his targets. Beyond just the one-game sample size, the product on the field has not been good enough.
Dubbed a "unicorn" in the passing attack coming out of the draft, the fourth-year player has only accounted for 1,128 yards receiving in the 31 games since his breakout rookie season. To make things worse, he's known to struggle in situations where he's called to be a primary blocker and has been criticized for his effort at times.
"Do you know how much they'd like to say, 'That's our third-down guy?' Steak asked Drew Butler on Monday morning. "[Imagine], every third-down you could go to a guy with a wing-span on what, [seven] feet? They don't even look for him [on third-down]."
The struggles of the offense, as a whole, have likely magnified the struggles of the former first-round pick -- the unit has only scored five times all season, albeit against top-flight defenses -- but Pitts hasn't done much, if anything, to silence his doubters.
