Jaguars’ Thanksgiving Task? Slowing Down Kyle Pitts: ‘I Don’t Know if One Guy Can Stop Him’
Impossible tasks are on every NFL field. Every single Sunday, a team is tasked with the unthinkable task of stopping one of the NFL's greats, on one side of the ball or the other.
That was the case for the Jacksonville Jaguars' defense last week as they faced off against one elite tight end in George Kittle. And the challenge gets no easier in Week 12, even with a new opponent coming to town. The Jaguars will still be tasked with the impossible as they clash with the Atlanta Falcons -- finding a way to slow down Kyle Pitts.
"I don’t know if I’ve ever seen one like that," Urban Meyer marveled on Tuesday when asked about Pitts' special qualities as a tight end.
"I’ve had some good tight ends and coached against some good tight ends, but he’s a receiver with a receiver skill set, great mindset because I got to know him and I knew the guy that coached him very well, so I was very involved in who he was as a player and a person.”
Those are qualities the Jaguars are going to have to make a focus moving into Week 12. A week after Kittle made the Jaguars look foolish over the middle of the field and dominated their defensive front as a blocker, the script will change completely this week.
Unlike Kittle, Pitts is more of a flexed out tight end who will frequently be the offense's No. 1 receiver. He wins as a pure in-line tight end and over the middle, but he can also line up on the outside and beat a starting cornerback on a go route for an explosive play. The Jaguars haven't played any tight ends like Pitts this season, in large part because there are no tight ends like Pitts. He is in a class of his own, and that is the challenge the Jaguars have to face over Thanksgiving week.
"I mean Pitts, how do you defend him? He’s making one-handed catches all over the place," Jaguars defensive coordinator Joe Cullen said on Wednesday. "He’s going to break every rookie tight end record in the NFL I’m sure, and he’s a problem."
Through nine games, Pitts (the No. 4 overall pick in the 2021 NFL Draft) has caught 43 passes for 635 yards (14.8 yards per catch) and one touchdown. With seven games to go, Pitts is already No. 10 all-time in receiving yards by a rookie tight end, No. 15 in receptions, and No. 2 in yards per game.
Pitts has brought a true level of hybrid tight end/receiver play to the NFL, something that makes him difficult to defend on any given play. And as Cullen tells it, he may not even be a tight end -- he is simply a weapon.
"He’s absolutely a wide receiver. He’s as fast as any wide receiver out there. He’s bigger and that’s another great point, they’ll move him around everywhere," Cullen said. "He is in the tight end position at times, but most of the time, he’s out at one by himself and everybody’s on the other side. They’ll motion him, get him to exactly where they want to put him.”
“I was with [Ravens TE] Mark [Andrews]. When we had Mark and [Falcons TE and former Ravens TE Hayden] Hurst healthy, they did some of the similar things [Ravens Offensive Coordinator] Coach [Greg] Roman did where it’s big personnel and now they’re out there like ten personnel. Now you have a linebacker covering those guys and then they can come back in and run the football with those guys. They present matchup problems. Like I said, he has the speed of a wide receiver and the size and stuff of a hybrid tight end.”
Pitts hasn't lit the NFL on fire every week, but he always presents matchup problems no matter where the ball goes. He had just three catches for 29 yards as the Falcons' offense was dominated by the New England Patriots last week, with the Patriots playing a physical brand of football with Pitts.
Can the Jaguars repeat that type of defensive performance against the Falcons' best offensive weapon? That is the question Meyer and Cullen will have to answer Sunday, and the question each will likely consider as they sit around the Thanksgiving table on Thursday.
“Just like I thought he would. I thought the Patriots did a pretty good job against him, before that he’s—I don’t know if one guy can stop him," Meyer said.
"He’s one of those players that you have to have help over the top or help inside, something like that. If you’re going to play man [you need help], in the zone it’s different.”
