2021 NFL DRAFT SCOUTING REPORT FEBRUARY 9, 2021 NFL Draft 2021 Scouting Report: TE Kyle Pitts, Florida *Our TE grades can and will change as more information comes in from Pro Day workouts, leaked Wonderlic test results, etc. We will update ratings as new info becomes available. **Our TE formulas had some slight changes in the offseason—an adjustment to better identify and value TE prospects that are smaller physically and are primed for the era ahead...the era of Jordan Reed and Delanie Walker-type TEs. Our historical grades will have changed some on various prospects as well, to show their grades by comparison. How’s this for an opening statement: Kyle Pitts is the most dangerous receiving tight end I’ve ever laid eyes on. Arguably the best TE prospect I’ve ever seen (in my 10+ years). I won’t be alone in that assessment. You can always find people on the opposite of any argument, football or otherwise…but on this, on Kyle Pitts being a great/elite, nearly without flaw TE prospect for the NFL Draft – we find something everyone can agree upon. Nearly without flaw. What flaw then? About the only thing you can say is – he’s not fully a traditional tight end that is going to be some heavyweight, ace blocker in the run game. However, he’s not a liability as a blocker…and if he’s in blocking a lot, you’re using him wrong anyway. You don’t draft Joe Burrow to run the wishbone…and you don’t draft Kyle Pitts to not run routes and block every down. Pitts has long arms to extend a barrier to push, block pass rushers away. He’s strong enough to hold his own as a blocker. His feet are quicker than the defenders, so he can dance with them or slide to them with ease. He’s fine as blocker, and anyone who is worried about his blocking (and not focused on his real gift/superhero-like abilities) is insane anyway. Where Pitts is off the charts is – he’s the most fluid, natural receiver talent I’ve ever seen at the tight end position. He’s literally like watching Calvin Johnson play tight end. You like Darren Waller…the highly athletic WR turned elite tight end? Pitts is better than Waller. Pitts has foot movement like a Diontae Johnson or Davante Adams off the snap…so fast, he can’t be covered/he gets open at will. I’ve never seen a tight end with such feet in my life. It’s like watching a great, modern day wide receiver at work…only Pitts is 6’5”+ and 240+ pounds doing it, which almost defies the laws of nature. 35-40+ pounds bigger than a Diontae or Davante type WR…with the same quick feet. When you think of the (current) great athletes at tight end – Waller, Evan Engram, Noah Fant…Pitts has them all beat. College Football Metrics| 1 2021 NFL DRAFT SCOUTING REPORT FEBRUARY 9, 2021 Pitts is more a combination of Waller and Fant. Engram is the fastest of the group in a sprint, but he has suspect/OK/unreliable hands. Waller and Fant are both incredible athletes, but Pitts may be/is even better. Waller has the best hands of the current NFL TE comparison group – Pitts has better hands today/right away. If I ranked the Pitts-Waller-Engram-Fant in key areas, it would go as follows: Hands: Pitts, Waller, Fant, Engram And Pitts with distance here. He’s already an ace in athleticism/movement skills, but also blessed with great/elite/special hands. No drops recorded for him last year. He catches about everything thrown near him – in traffic or otherwise. Agility/Routes/Get open: Pitts-Waller-Fant-Engram Pitts is the quickest TE off the snap I can recall ever seeing/scouting, period. A+ hands with A+ feet at 6’5”/245+ is insane. Straight speed: Engram-Waller-Pitts-Fant Engram and Waller have lows 4.4s sprinter type speed…my guess is Pitts is more low 4.5s. You’d rather have Pitts’ quickness off the snap to get open and make the catch and live with a 4.5s runner after…than a 4.4s runner who has a tough time operating short/medium plays. If Pitts registers in the 4.4s for a 40-time, then we’ll take his grading even higher. You have to design plays for Engram to utilize his superpower (and keep him away from his kryptonite)…get him the ball with a head of steam or throw to him deep (where he’s an iffy catcher). He needs to be going full speed to make a difference. Pitts you treat like a #1 WR…he’ll get open on anyone, safety, linebacker, or when top corners try to come in and man up to him. I watched Pitts routinely work Alabama’s highly touted CB Patrick Surtain in their 2020 game. If a DB covers Pitts, he’s too big for them short or deep. If a linebacker goes to cover him…Pitts is way too fast for them. End zone threat: Pitts-Waller-Fant-Engram Pitts just gets open too quick/easy, cuts away from defenders with ease…you don’t have to use him as a bully or high point option only – though he can go high point with the best of them. He can spread out and jab step and cut immediately off the snap for a two-yard quick toss and easy TD like no one else among our TE comparison group can. Blocking: Engram-Fant-Waller-Pitts That’s today…the pro guys have developed their blocking skills and gotten thicker in the pros. I suspect Pitts will be right there with them in short order. The one thing you can teach/fix/coach a talent on. College Football Metrics| 2 2021 NFL DRAFT SCOUTING REPORT FEBRUARY 9, 2021 Pitts has been relatively injury free and is a soft spoken, well-liked, and a good character background check prospect combined with elite on-field skills. I can find no real flaws. The only debate point is – what is an elite of the elite TE worth in the NFL Draft? Before we answer that, this year of Kyle Pitts makes me wonder…for the tight end position – are we about to enter a golden age of Kyle Pitts-like, ultra-athletic TE prospects? Have we been building in this direction for years (with better and better athletes rising up through the system)…or this is a blip? I am thinking this because I feel like I’ve been claiming a TE prospect is or might be ‘the best I’ve ever seen’ for several years in a row now. So, I want to explore this. In 2017, we got O.J. Howard and Evan Engram…and I wondered, at the time, if that was the greatest 1-2 punch of TE prospects to hit the NFL – and if this was the beginning of a run of freak TE prospects streaming into college/the pros. Howard was very athletic for his size and Engram ran 40-times off-the- charts and was expected to change the game. In hindsight, they really didn’t change the game that much. In 2018, we got Dallas Goedert who I graded/scouted on an elite level…a better all-around TE than OJH or Engram. An athletic Gronk-like creature. He’s been buried in Philly to this day. In 2019, I thought Noah Fant was like an amalgamation of the best of Howard and Engram…size with freakish speed/quickness and a good-to-great receiver (for a TE). I wondered if Fant might be one of the best TE prospects I’ve ever scouted. He’s had two boring years in Denver, though still filled with promise. From 2017 to 2018 to 2019, there was at least one TE prospect that made me wonder if they were ‘the best I’d seen in my scouting history’ in some way. In 2020, another big label group but in a different way -- it was the worst class of TE prospects I’d seen since the year Maxx Williams was the supposed top TE among scouts (not me). I thought Albert Okwuegbunam was interesting in 2020, but the NFL preferred Cole Kmet and Devin Asiasi. Yikes. Maybe 2017-18-19 was not a growing trend after seeing the 2020 group? Or was 2020 just a pause year? And now we have 2021’s Kyle Pitts…who might be the best TE prospect I’ve ever seen. Our computer models are near-broken on the possibility – our computer models have not ever seen anything like Pitts. Our computer models respected Engram-Howard-Fant-Goedert, very much so…but Pitts quasi-broke the system like Joe Burrow did among QB grades last year. I’d never seen anything like Burrow at QB in college, his great tape and stunning output against strong opponents…ditto Pitts. That’s the good news, for Pitts. College Football Metrics| 3 2021 NFL DRAFT SCOUTING REPORT FEBRUARY 9, 2021 The bad news is – what has it mattered in NFL translation for tight ends? Howard has fallen off. Engram got stuck with terrible offenses/terrible teams and has flashed something special but not consistently. Dallas Goedert is terrific…but has been buried as a backup/co-starter with Zach Ertz. Noah Fant got stuck with Drew Lock and Vic Fangio. Am I just wrong about high end tight end scouting or do the ones we prefer just keep landing horribly in the NFL? The only real eye-catching, difference making TEs in the NFL are who – Kelce-Waller-Kittle? Kelce a lot because of Mahomes.