Kyle Pitts breaks Atlanta Falcons rookie receiving record

Kyle Pitts’ rookie season is one for the record books.

During Sunday’s Atlanta-Buffalo game, Pitts broke Julio Jones’ Falcons record for most receiving yards by a rookie.

With this catch, Kyle Pitts has broken Julio Jones’ franchise record for MOST receiving yards by a rookie.

📺: FOX | @kylepitts__ pic.twitter.com/nFCKVXxAIL

— Atlanta Falcons (@AtlantaFalcons) January 2, 2022

Jones had 959 receiving yards in 2011, his first season out of Alabama. Pitts entered Sunday’s game with 64 catches for 949 yards. In the first half, Pitts has 2 catches for 69 yards, putting him over 1,000 yards for the season.

Pitts is chasing Mike Ditka’s record for tight end receiving yards as a rookie, a mark set in 14 games in 1961.

A full list of rookie tight ends in NFL history with at least 1,000 receiving yards:

1. Mike Ditka: 1,076
2. Kyle Pitts: 1,018

Pitts has a real shot to set the rookie TE receiving record (note: with 3 extra games).

— Field Yates (@FieldYates) January 2, 2022

Andrew Olson

Andrew writes about sports to fund his love of live music and collection of concert posters. He strongly endorses the Hall of Fame campaigns of Fred Taylor and Andruw Jones.