Micah Parsons is still sidelined, but he spent Monday night doing what a lot of frustrated Atlanta Falcons fans have been doing: watching Kyle Pitts barely get the ball.
The Packers edge rusher is on the physically unable to perform list while he recovers from the torn ACL and meniscus he suffered late last season.
Coach Matt LaFleur said Monday that Parsons will not practice this week, even as the rehab continues to move forward.
That left him free to follow Atlanta’s visit to the Superdome, and what he saw was enough for a three-word post on X during the game: “Free Kyle Pitts!!”
Atlanta did not need its highest-paid tight end to build the lead. The Falcons went into halftime up 24-7 on the Saints, and Pitts had two catches for 19 yards. Those two receptions matched his entire output from the first three weeks.
He had opened the year without a catch against Pittsburgh, then managed one for 15 yards in a loss to Carolina. Against Green Bay on Sept. 24 he finished with a single reception for five yards in a 35-14 Falcons win at Lambeau Field, a night when Atlanta piled up 498 yards.
Michael Penix Jr. threw for 256, Bijan Robinson ran for 194, and Drake London caught nine passes for 194. Pitts was a footnote.
Monday night looked similar. Atlanta had 255 yards by halftime without leaning on him. Robinson ran for 103 yards and two scores, and London had four catches for 82 yards. The offense was rolling.
The tight end who just signed the big contract was not.
That contract is what makes the quiet start hard to ignore. After a 2025 season in which Pitts caught 88 passes for 928 yards and five touchdowns and earned second-team All-Pro honors,
Atlanta gave him a three-year, $54 million extension with $36 million fully guaranteed. It was the franchise doubling down on the player it made the highest-drafted tight end in NFL history in 2021, after years in which the production never quite matched the draft capital.
Four games into the new deal, the shape of the offense explains some of the drop-off and not all of it.
Robinson and London are still the clear priorities, and Penix has already shown he can generate explosives without feeding the tight end. Parsons, stuck on the sideline in Green Bay, was not arguing scheme. He was pointing at a $54 million player who, through the first half in New Orleans, still looked optional.
Pitts gave him something to say. The Falcons have not given Pitts much else.
