The Atlanta Falcons have officially franchise tagged tight end Kyle Pitts and when the initial reports came out about this move happening, before the Falcons made the move official yesterday, part of the report was that the Falcons were looking to come to an agreement with Pitts on a long-term contract extension.
However, When Falcons General Manager Ian Cunningham joined The Steakhouse yesterday, and Steak and Sandra asked the Falcons GM why he and the team chose to franchise tag the former number four overall pick he said “This is a way for us to use the mechanisms that are provided by the league to allow ourselves a little bit more time to evaluate. We didn’t want him to go into free agency next week, we’re not in the business of letting go really good players, and again it just buys us a little bit more time to make some decisions and evaluate the roster and him as a whole.”
After hearing that response by the Falcons GM The Morning Shift explained why they think it doesn’t seem like the Falcons are looking to extend Kyle Pitts this offseason, and that Pitts’ franchise tag will serve as a one year prove it deal.
“This kind of directly contradicts the report that was out there that they’re working towards a long term contract. Am I wrong in saying that? Because it sounds to me like he’s like ah you know we’ll see what happens we didn’t want him to walk in free agency. We’ll kind of really see where he’s at next season and what he’s able to do in Kevin [Stefanski’s] offense and we’ll move on from there. I didn’t get any vibe from that that hey yeah we really like him as a player 100%, and we’re working towards a long term contract.” Mike Johnson said
Now that the Falcons have used the franchise tag on Kyle they have until 4 P.M. on July 15th to sign him to a long term contract, otherwise, he will play on the one-year $16 million dollar tag, so it will be known very soon whether or not the Falcons really have any intention on signing Kyle Pitts to a long term contract extension, or if the new regime in Atlanta is essentially using Pitts’ tag as a one-year prove it deal.