{"id":21573,"date":"2026-02-23T18:45:29","date_gmt":"2026-02-23T18:45:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.jubi24.com\/?p=21573"},"modified":"2026-02-23T18:45:33","modified_gmt":"2026-02-23T18:45:33","slug":"source-falcons-plan-to-place-franchise-tag-on-te-kyle-pitts","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.jubi24.com\/?p=21573","title":{"rendered":"Source: Falcons plan to place franchise tag on TE Kyle Pitts"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div>\n<div class=\"article-meta\">\n<div class=\"byline-wrap\">\n<ul class=\"authors byline-authors\">\n<li class=\"single-author mugshot-shown\">\n<div class=\"author-img\"><\/div>\n<p>Marc Raimondi<span class=\"timestamp \">Feb 23, 2026, 01:07 PM ET<\/span><\/p>\n<div class=\"author-overlay\"><a class=\"icon-font-after icon-close-solid-after\" href=\"#\">Close<\/a><\/p>\n<ul>Marc Raimondi&#8217;s first year covering the Falcons was 2024, but it wasn&#8217;t his first year at ESPN. He joined the company in 2019 and was a top combat sports reporter. He also covered professional wrestling and wrote the book &#8220;Say Hello to the Bad Guys: How Pro Wrestling&#8217;s New World Order Changed America,&#8221; which was published by Simon &amp; Schuster in 2025. Raimondi also worked for the New York Post and Newsday, beginning in 2009, covering high school and college sports, plus the NFL, NFL, MLB and NHL.<\/ul>\n<\/div>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Multiple Authors<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>The <a data-clubhouse-guid=\"49fd392a-86fe-4df3-1b77-9bbfa18b2ad5\" href=\"https:\/\/www.espn.com\/nfl\/team\/_\/name\/atl\/atlanta-falcons\">Atlanta Falcons<\/a> plan to place the franchise tag on tight end <a data-player-guid=\"7290d27f-bdc5-21fe-0800-c4ae5597cd34\" href=\"https:\/\/www.espn.com\/nfl\/player\/_\/id\/4360248\/kyle-pitts-sr\">Kyle Pitts Sr<\/a>., likely keeping one of the top tight ends in the league under contract for at least one more season, a source told ESPN&#8217;s Jeremy Fowler on Monday.<\/p>\n<p>Franchise tag contract numbers are based on the top five annual salaries at each position. Pitts stands to make about $16,319,000 in 2026, the franchise tag salary this year for tight ends, according to OverTheCap.com. Pitts and the Falcons will have until July 15 to agree to a long-term contract or else he will have to play the 2026 season under the franchise tender.<\/p>\n<p>The deadline for teams to use the franchise or transition tag is next Tuesday with free agency beginning the week after.<\/p>\n<aside class=\"inline editorial float-r\" data-behavior=\"article_related\">\n<h2 class=\"editorial-title\">Editor&#8217;s Picks<\/h2>\n<p>2 Related<\/p>\n<\/aside>\n<p>Pitts, 25, finished second among tight ends in receptions (88) and receiving yards (928) last season, trailing behind only <a data-player-guid=\"bd8caf85-18e8-478a-ff01-42ac1225ccff\" href=\"https:\/\/www.espn.com\/nfl\/player\/_\/id\/4361307\/trey-mcbride\">Trey McBride<\/a> of the <a data-clubhouse-guid=\"8fc7b962-95e1-3cb8-6a7d-b499de9ad546\" href=\"https:\/\/www.espn.com\/nfl\/team\/_\/name\/ari\/arizona-cardinals\">Arizona Cardinals<\/a>. Pitts added a career-high five touchdown catches. He was voted as AP second-team All-Pro.<\/p>\n<p>It marked a major rebound year, including one of the best games ever for a tight end. Against the <a data-clubhouse-guid=\"13e8b157-a75a-ff24-ae91-fa3d52ddf204\" href=\"https:\/\/www.espn.com\/nfl\/team\/_\/name\/tb\/tampa-bay-buccaneers\">Tampa Bay Buccaneers<\/a> in December, Pitts had 11 catches for 166 yards and three touchdowns, becoming the first tight end to reach at least 150 yards with three touchdowns in a game since Shannon Sharpe in 1996.<\/p>\n<p>Pitts struggled with injuries and inconsistency from 2022 to 2024 after a record-breaking rookie season in 2021. Pitts had 1,026 yards on 68 catches in his first year. He was the first tight end to reach 1,000 yards as a rookie since Mike Ditka in 1961 and the first tight end to make the Pro Bowl since Jeremy Shockey in 2002.<\/p>\n<p>Matt Ryan was Pitts&#8217; quarterback during that standout season and now Ryan is the Falcons&#8217; new president of football. Ryan led the search committee that hired former <a data-clubhouse-guid=\"539babc5-e5fb-753b-8ae1-c15032a91ef4\" href=\"https:\/\/www.espn.com\/nfl\/team\/_\/name\/cle\/cleveland-browns\">Cleveland Browns<\/a> coach Kevin Stefanski as the team&#8217;s new head coach and Ian Cunningham, formerly the <a data-clubhouse-guid=\"19d73366-b5a5-cca2-a176-a2c024ce0bb3\" href=\"https:\/\/www.espn.com\/nfl\/team\/_\/name\/chi\/chicago-bears\">Chicago Bears<\/a> assistant general manager, as general manager. Stefanski is a former tight ends coach and has an affinity for the position in his offensive schemes.<\/p>\n<p>The 6-foot-6, 250-pound Pitts tore his MCL in 2022 and did not eclipse 700 yards in 2023 or 2024. He also dealt with having a lot of turnover at the quarterback position, with six different signal-callers (Ryan, <a data-player-guid=\"33be1f4a-d812-75b9-7b7c-5319d2a7113a\" href=\"https:\/\/www.espn.com\/nfl\/player\/_\/id\/2576980\/marcus-mariota\">Marcus Mariota<\/a>, <a data-player-guid=\"ebac7142-0cc2-ad3e-968c-f40a12ee68d4\" href=\"https:\/\/www.espn.com\/nfl\/player\/_\/id\/4239086\/desmond-ridder\">Desmond Ridder<\/a>, <a data-player-guid=\"a4265a18-26ce-6704-eaf3-5440d25e40b9\" href=\"https:\/\/www.espn.com\/nfl\/player\/_\/id\/2565969\/taylor-heinicke\">Taylor Heinicke<\/a>, <a data-player-guid=\"53bec012-c2ed-bc7c-a8d5-438611f9faa1\" href=\"https:\/\/www.espn.com\/nfl\/player\/_\/id\/14880\/kirk-cousins\">Kirk Cousins<\/a> and <a data-player-guid=\"28022fa1-9050-eee1-5160-c77a6a379ec2\" href=\"https:\/\/www.espn.com\/nfl\/player\/_\/id\/4360423\/michael-penix-jr\">Michael Penix Jr<\/a>.) throwing to him in five seasons.<\/p>\n<p>The Falcons drafted Pitts at No. 4 overall out of Florida in the 2021 draft, believing in his combination of speed, size and ability to make plays in space.\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p><br \/>\n<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/www.espn.com\/nfl\/story\/_\/id\/48015391\/source-falcons-place-franchise-tag-te-kyle-pitts\">Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Marc RaimondiFeb 23, 2026, 01:07 PM ET Close Marc Raimondi&#8217;s first year covering the Falcons was 2024, but it wasn&#8217;t his first year at ESPN. He joined the company in 2019 and was a top combat sports reporter. He also covered professional wrestling and wrote the book &#8220;Say Hello to the Bad Guys: How Pro &#8230; <a title=\"Source: Falcons plan to place franchise tag on TE Kyle Pitts\" class=\"read-more\" href=\"https:\/\/www.jubi24.com\/?p=21573\" aria-label=\"Read more about Source: Falcons plan to place franchise tag on TE Kyle Pitts\">Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":21574,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-21573","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.jubi24.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/Source-Falcons-plan-to-place-franchise-tag-on-TE-Kyle.jpeg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jubi24.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21573","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jubi24.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jubi24.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jubi24.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jubi24.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=21573"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.jubi24.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21573\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":21575,"href":"https:\/\/www.jubi24.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21573\/revisions\/21575"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jubi24.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/21574"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jubi24.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=21573"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jubi24.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=21573"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jubi24.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=21573"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}