By now, it's common knowledge that Kyle Pitts is one of the most divisive players in the NFL. Fantasy football players quickly got sick of the "this is his year" shtick, so when his career year came, people didn't think much into it. The general reaction was that this is what he was supposed to do for years.
For a while there, he was like the Dallas Cowboys. All the hype about it being his time with nothing to show for it. But he finally turned a corner in 2025. 88 catches, 928 yards, and a career-high five touchdowns. No wonder the Atlanta Falcons were chomping at the bit to sign him to a new deal.
And now the Falcons signed him to a new extension. It was a roller coaster to get here, but Atlanta signed him to a three-year, $54 million contract in place of the franchise tag. And while some people have commended the initiative from the new regime, the Pitts hate has followed him on a new deal, especially now that he's set to be the NFL's third highest-paid TE.
Booger McFarland is not a fan of the Atlanta Falcons extending Kyle Pitts
There have been plenty of people online labeling this deal as an "overpay" or chastizing the team for rewarding his inconsistency. But there's no bigger hater than ESPN's Booger McFarland, who revealed on NFL Live that he doesn't love this deal because of what we've seen from Kyle Pitts.
“I don’t love it because I don’t think the player has lived up to what we thought he was gonna be," McFarland said. "We thought he was going to be this matchup nightmare that would revolutionize the league. A tight end at 6'4, 6'5, 250 who can run 4.4, he was just gonna be a matchup nightmare. He just hasn't been that just yet."
Like everyone, McFarland said that he expected more from the 25-year-old. He was labeled as a generational tight end prospect coming out of Florida, and was supposed to be a matchup nightmare. At 6-foot-6 and 250 pounds with 4.4 speed, you were expecting him to be a complete unicorn.
But that hasn't been what's happened. Between years of quarterback instability and some injury woes, the sixth-year man hasn't been as advertised with the Dirty Birds. We've seen flashes of his superstar potential, like against the Bucs on TNF last year, but they haven't been very consistent.
Atlanta could've traded him or cut bait years ago, but the raw talent and the promise from last year gave them a reason to take a shot. The system is new, the quarterback play should improve, and ultimately, he has too much talent for them to give up on.
Here's the thing with the NFL contract world: it's just as much about who you are as who you're going to become, and clearly the Falcons have enough belief in Kyle Pitts to morph into a star under Kevin Stefanski to warrant this second contract. So it really doesn't matter what anyone else has to say.
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