Atlanta Falcons tight end Kyle Pitts is pushing for a more prominent role in the offense heading into Week 3 of the 2026 NFL season, after a Week 2 performance in which he saw the fewest targets of his professional career, according to a Forbes report by Jeff Fedotin published September 17. The development raises questions about how Atlanta’s offensive coaching staff is deploying one of the league’s most physically gifted tight ends — and whether scheme or circumstance is driving the underutilization. For context on how resource allocation decisions ripple through complex organizations, GDD’s recent coverage of defense funding illustrates how capability and deployment can diverge even when the asset itself is not in question.

Pitts, a former fourth-overall draft pick who entered the league with substantial expectations, has faced recurring questions about target volume across multiple seasons. His Week 2 target total — the lowest of his career to that point, per Forbes — underscored what analysts and fantasy managers alike have flagged as a persistent gap between his theoretical ceiling and his actual usage within Atlanta’s offensive system. Forbes did not specify the exact target figure in the headline context available, but characterized it as a career low, a threshold that carries weight given Pitts has played through multiple offensive coordinator changes since entering the NFL.

Offensive Scheme and Target Distribution

The Falcons’ passing attack involves multiple skill-position weapons, and how play-callers distribute targets among receivers, running backs, and tight ends directly shapes individual statistical outputs. Pitts’ situation is not unique in a league where even elite pass-catchers can see diminished looks depending on game script, opposing coverages, and coordinator philosophy. The challenge for Atlanta’s staff is ensuring that a player of Pitts’ receiving ability is integrated consistently enough to be a genuine offensive threat rather than a situational option.

Broader injury dynamics across the league also factor into week-to-week matchup planning. A separate Forbes injury report published September 15 flagged the health status of several high-profile pass-catchers entering Week 2, including A.J. Brown, Zay Flowers, and Ladd McConkey — a reminder that target distribution across the league shifts in real time based on who is available at the snap. Whether opposing defensive coordinators factored Pitts’ reduced usage into their Week 2 game plans, or whether Atlanta’s own scheme suppressed his involvement, was not confirmed in the available reporting.

What a Rebound Would Require

For Pitts to register a meaningful statistical recovery in Week 3, analysts generally point to a combination of factors: pre-snap alignment that creates favorable matchups against linebackers rather than safeties, route designs that get him into open space in the intermediate range, and a game script that supports pass volume rather than one that funnels Atlanta toward the run. None of those variables are fully within Pitts’ control, which is precisely why the target figure — rather than yards or touchdowns — is the metric most scrutinized when evaluating his opportunity.

The Forbes report framed Pitts’ situation as one of potential rather than decline, consistent with how his career arc has generally been covered: a player whose physical tools remain elite but whose production has been constrained by factors above his position on the depth chart. Whether Week 3 produces a correction will depend as much on Atlanta’s opponent and play-calling philosophy as on anything Pitts does at the line of scrimmage. The Falcons have not publicly commented, per the available sourcing, on any planned adjustments to his role.