One of the few things the Fantasy Football community has been able to agree on the past five years is that you shouldn't expect much from rookie tight ends. Now Kyle Pitts has broken that too.
The No. 4 pick in the 2021 NFL Draft is already being ranked as a top-eight redraft tight end by almost everyone and he's snuck as high as TE5 in some rankings. That's basically unprecedented, but Pitts is fairly unprecedented as a prospect as well. He has the longest wingspan ever measured for a wide receiver or tight end prospect and his size-speed combination is nearly unmatched. Add in the fact that he averaged more than 90 receiving yards per game in his final year of college and you'll have a really hard time finding a perfect comp.
The closest comp might be Vernon Davis and Davis didn't top 600 yards in a season until his fourth season in the league. In fact, Evan Engram and Jeremy Shockey are the only first round tight ends in the past 20 years to top 600 receiving yards as rookies. Engram, O.J. Howard, and Heath Miller were the only tight ends to score more than four touchdowns as a rookie.
What does this mean for Pitts? If he validates our redraft ranking of him, he should probably be the No. 1 Dynasty tight end around Week 6. As for now, I've slotted him in at No. 3. I expect a bit of a slow start, and I'd definitely prefer Darren Waller over him if I was a contender. But in any other situation, I'm taking the 20-year-old who stands out in almost every imaginable way. Travis Kelce has shown us how valuable an elite tight end can be and Pitts is the best guess for who's next.
