NFL Draft: 3 first-round picks who have been a letdown so far

Falcons TE Kyle Pitts

Last year at Flordia, Kyle Pitts was consisted to be the consensus number one tight end in the nation with his terrific physical traits and natural pass-catching ability. In fact, there were many NFL Draft analysts who deemed him to be a ‘generation prospect’ who was almost guaranteed to be an All-Pro player somewhere down the line in the NFL. So far, we haven’t seen anything close to that.

In his first four games of his rookie season, Pitts has caught just 15 of 26 targets (57.7 percent) for 189 yards and zero scores. Though he hasn’t been credited with a drop, Falcons quarterback Matt Ryan has just an 80.4 passer rating when throwing in his direction, according to advanced statistics from Pro Football Reference.

For any normal tight-end prospect, this would still be considered a respectable start to the season. However, there were such high hopes for Kyle Pitts that the Falcons were okay with trading away Julio Jones following the NFL Draft.

Kyle Pitts is young and talented, and with better quarterback play, he could soon turn his rookie season around. However, Pittsburgh’s Pat Freiermuth has graded out as the better player so far in a part-time role and an aging Ben Roethlisberger has a 132.2 passer rating throwing to him. For as talented as Pitts is, don’t expect this trend to continue.