Falcons’ Kyle Pitts appears ready for training camp

Quarterback Michael Penix Jr. is shown throwing darts to Pitts, Drake London and McCloud. The post had more than 3,600 likes on Instagram by Sunday afternoon.

Pitts was held out of the Falcons’ mandatory minicamp and the offseason organized team activities that were opened to the media. Pitts was in attendance but reportedly was held back as a cautionary matter with a foot injury.

“He’s dealing,” Falcons coach Raheem Morris said on Day 1 of minicamp in June. “It’s tough always when you go through these things. Everybody’s at different portions and different spots when you’re talking about injuries. Hopefully, he’s going to be fine and look forward to him getting back when we come back to training camp and get going.”

Pitts, who’s set to report for training camp Wednesday, looks fine in the video. He’s shown running several routes, cutting to his left and right.

After a dynamic rookie season, Pitts — the highest-drafted tight end (fourth overall, 2021) in NFL history — has battled through some tough times. He largely was a nonfactor for most of last season.

This is an important season for Pitts, who’s in the final year of his rookie contract and could become a free agent at the end of the season. He caught 47 of his 74 targets last season for 602 yards and a career-high four touchdowns.

Pitts started out strong last season but faded. He was playing less than 50% of the offensive snaps down the stretch.

Former Falcons quarterback Matt Ryan started working out with the wide receivers away from the team facility in 2016. The offseason work and team building would become a regular occurrence and was dubbed “Camp Brotherhood” during the Dan Quinn era.

The first two were held in Miami, and in 2018, the Falcons went to California. After the 2016 camp, in which they fined-tuned the passing attack ahead of camp, Ryan was named the league’s MVP and took the team to the Super Bowl.

The Falcons also consider Pitts a weapon on third down. He had 21 first downs receiving last season.

“He’s actually one of those guys that goes out on third down, was actually able to move the chains, creating that threat for you in that mismatch situation,” Morris said. “Most of the time his big-time role has been the pass game.”

Pitts also helped in pass blocking with his chip blocks, where he blocks a player before going into his route.

“He’s been a big part of our (pass) protection programs,” Morris said.

In a recent survey of coaches, scouts and league executives, former Georgia tight end Brock Bowers — now of the Las Vegas Raiders — was listed as the top player at the position. Pitts did not make the top 10. He wasn’t even in the seven-member “Honorable Mention” section.

“It’s just that it’s always hard to accomplish the goals that everybody else wants for him, and some of that pressure that lives on his chest is really accumulated by himself and us — and us, I mean, us as the media, because of how high he was drafted and how he’s projected,” Morris said. “… So there’s some of the pressure that we all put on ourselves, but really pleased on what he can do when he gets back and really pleased on working with him throughout the process.”

Morris was asked what’s the next step for Pitts.

“I think it’s just when you go to the targets to him, some of the individual cuts and getting better at those things, working with him and Michael (Penix Jr.) together,” Morris said. “I think that’s something that’ll get done as soon as they have the opportunity to. I really feel good about those guys’ connection.”