Kyle Crabbs speculates on trade rumors surrounding Atlanta Falcons tight end Kyle Pitts and discusses how a trade to the New England Patriots could be perfect for all parties involved.
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00:002025 is the summer of tight end trade rumors and the latest name up is Atlanta's Kyle Pitts.
00:09Kyle Krause with A to Z Sports and last week brought two Pro Bowl tight ends into the spotlight
00:14as potential trade targets for teams across the league. First up was Jonu Smith of the Miami
00:21Dolphins who was tied to trade negotiations with the Pittsburgh Steelers on Thursday.
00:26That move would reunite Jonu Smith with his former coach Arthur Smith who's the offensive coordinator
00:32now in Pittsburgh but Arthur Smith's other star tight end Kyle Pitts came up on Friday as a player
00:40that teams might be able to tap into and acquire if they were willing to part with a day two picking
00:46compensation. That report came courtesy of Jordan Schultz and with the calendar now turning to June
00:53it's a good time to look and see who has the cap space to potentially onboard Kyle Pitts's fifth year
00:58option which is a fully guaranteed 10.878 million dollars for 2025. Now if you're willing to part
01:06with a day two pick to bring Pitts into the picture you may want to consider a long-term deal as well
01:12so that might knock down teams that have the cap space but recently drafted a tight end of their own
01:18like the New York Jets who are in the top five in current salary cap space or perhaps you have a star
01:24tight end at the position that you just renegotiated a market reset contract to like the San Francisco 49ers
01:30but when you look at the teams in the top 10 of available cap space Pittsburgh is one of the teams
01:36that could make some sense for Kyle Pitts. Now they were only associated and affiliated with Jonu Smith
01:42but they have an extra third round draft pick courtesy of the trade of George Pickens to the
01:48Dallas Cowboys. They're in the top 10 in salary cap space so they could very easily onboard that
01:54additional salary cap commitment for Pitts but they have Pratt-Friermuth under contract on a long-term
02:00deal and this team is still playing the waiting game to try to land Aaron Rodgers at the quarterback
02:05position. The low-hanging fruit however is northeast of Pittsburgh. It's the New England Patriots who have
02:11been desperate to land upgrades at pass catcher for their young quarterback Drake May. They made
02:18overtures to Chris Godwin reportedly willing to pay him significantly more than what he took to stay
02:24in Tampa Bay and they've paying Stefan Diggs who has already found himself in a little bit of hot water
02:30for off-the-field behavior in the past week. The Patriots do have Hunter Henry on a contract with the team
02:38but the Patriots have 65 plus million dollars in cap space. They have each of their own picks in the
02:44first, second, and third round of next year's NFL draft but they also have two fourth round picks
02:49courtesy of a draft day trade which could give them a little bit of wiggle room if they wanted to make
02:55the splash. There's a completely separate conversation about the kind of scheme, fit, usage, and role for
03:02Kyle Pitts that any team that looks to not only acquire him but pay him a long-term contract to
03:08justify the draft pick would need to be able to provide. Of all the teams that could possibly make
03:14the splash, the Patriots have the right mix of urgency looking at having Drake May own a rookie
03:21contract and trying to close the gap with the Buffalo Bills in the AFC East, cap space, surplus draft
03:27capital, and the coach who has the experience with working with flex tight ends and inline players
03:33who maybe are better pass catchers than they are receivers. The question is how motivated are the
03:38Patriots to make that kind of splash play happen? If it's anybody, I'd be willing to bet the Patriots
03:46would be at the top of the list.