The New England Patriots have a short week with the Atlanta Falcons coming up on Thursday night and Bill Belichick is quickly honing in on rookie tight end Kyle Pitts.
The Patriots are coming off a dominant 45-7 win against the Cleveland Browns and the Falcons are coming off an embarrassing 43-3 loss to the Dallas Cowboys. Pitts, who had four catches for 60 yards, was one of the few bright spots for Atlanta’s offense.
Through nine games, he has 40 receptions for 606 yards and a touchdown — there’s still eight games to go this season. Belichick understands Pitts’ trajectory and he discussed that in detail on WEEI’s “The Greg Hill Show” Monday morning.
“Everything is a problem,” he said. “This guy, I thought last year in the draft, just watching him, he’s phenomenal. He’s big. He’s fast. He’s got great hands and adjusts to the ball. Makes tough catches. Savvy route-runner, can get open. Very hard to match up against. I was reading through some of the Atlanta comments and you hear them comparing him to a cross between Tony Gonzalez and Julio Jones, and I’d say that’s about right. That’s what it looks like. This guy is one of the superstars of the NFL already.
“I’m sure he’ll break all the tight end rookie receiving records. I think he’s on pace to, but he’ll be right there. This guy’s got a tremendous career in front of him. He can play every position. He plays end of the line of scrimmage, he can play in the slot, he can play outside. He’s got a great skillset. He’s competitive. He’ll block. He’s good after the catch. He’s a matchup nightmare.”
The Patriots are ready to prepare for Thursday night immediately following the refreshing victory.
“We’ll get started today on the scouting report and use Tuesday and Wednesday as our preparation days and be ready to go on Thursday night,” Belichick said. “We have a lot of work to do, but we’re going to come in today and start banging away on it.”
Pitts and Cordarrelle Patterson are the most problematic players to look out for currently with Atlanta.
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