Former 49ers great offers some crucial advice for Kyle Pitts

They say it takes a little while for a tight end to develop once they go from college to the NFL, but for Atlanta Falcons tight end Kyle Pitts, we're now in Year 4 and there are some who have grown impatient.

Now, to Pitts' credit, he did put up a Pro Bowl season as a rookie. But since then, production has not been where some fans might have liked to see it. That could also partly be due to the fact that Pitts simply wasn't used correctly by Arthur Smith.

Regardless of your opinion on the Pitts matter, though, one former NFL tight end, and a sure fire Hall of Fame inductee in the near future, recently sat down with FanSided's Ian McMillan on our "Stacking the Box" podcast to offer some insight.

Former San Francisco 49ers great, Vernon Davis, looked back on his own career and offered perspective into what Pitts might have been facing over the first few years in the pros.

"The NFL level is a whole other beast ... it's totally different from college ... it can take some time. It took me a little bit of time," Davis remembered.

People might not recall, but it did take Davis a while to get going as a pro, believe it or not:

"I remember my first year and my second year. I was figuring everything out and then I started to take off after that.

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"So, it's one of those things with Kyle Pitts ... the way he's learning and how he's receiving that information. And now, he's going out there and being effective."

Vernon Davis is spot-on with his assessment of Kyle Pitts

"You really want to make sure the information is hitting you correctly. It's all about understanding at that next level. You have to understand how things work and just use what you learned and put it to work," Davis concluded.

The fact of the matter is, this all-time great is exactly right. Pitts is in Year 4 which is when things should finally be clicking and, based on the last few weeks alone, they're beginning to do so. He's been utilized much more over these past three games, in particular, catching 17 of 22 targets for 223 yards.

Looking back at Davis, for example, he truly didn't break out until his fourth season. Again, some fans might not remember this fact. Over his first three seasons in the NFL, Davis didn't get over 509 receiving yards. It wasn't until Year 4 when Davis ended up going for 965 yards and 13 touchdowns.

The moral of the story, here, is that Falcons fans should continue to be patient. Maybe Pitts has had a bigger learning curve than some. Maybe he hasn't been utilized the way he should be. And, maybe it's a little bit of both.

In the end, though, Pitts is not far off track in his development based on what history tells us. Keep the faith, and if Davis is right, we're going to start seeing an even bigger breakout from the former Florida Gator in the near future.