Fantasy Football Video: Kyle Pitts Sr. surged this past season — will the TE carry it into 2026?

Nobody in fantasy football has pulled a complete 180 quite like Falcons TE Kyle Pitts Sr. He was the butt of jokes and memes going into and early on in the 2025 NFL regular season. By the end of it, he was a legit league-winning tight end. Matt Harmon and Justin Boone take a look at Pitts' surge up the TE rankings and whether or not he'll carry that into the 2026 season on a recent episode of the Yahoo Fantasy Forecast.

Harmon immediately points out that it took WR Drake London going down with injury to really open things up for Pitts. The soon-to-be free agent finished the season as the TE2 overall behind Cardinals' Trey McBride in fantasy scoring. Pitts had 88 receptions on 118 targets for 928 yards and five touchdowns in 17 games.

A lot of that production was a 40.1-point explosion in Week 15 but Boone says it still happened for Pitts, who it was nice to see do meaningful things on a football field for the first time in a while. The analyst also reiterates what Harmon said, that the London injury was everything. Boone believes it's a trend with tight ends, such as Mike Gesicki and Cade Otton in recent seasons, who tend to emerge when injuries to the receiving corps occur.

Despite the big year, Pitts really wasn't a consistent option in fantasy for most of the season. He only topped 10 fantasy points in six games all season, and four of those games were when London was sidelined (London was active but limited in one of those games as well). So five of six games were directly tied to the ATL wideout's status.

Pitts, 25, will enter free agency this offseason and can sign with a new team. His outlook is still positive, depending on where he lands after seeing what he can do when he's a priority in the passing game.

Boone has Pitts as the TE9 in his early positional rankings for 2026 fantasy football. Pitts is ranked 96th overall in Boone's top-150 players for 2026 as well. In Boone's dynasty rankings and trade value charts, Pitts comes in as the TE8 overall.