How Falcons’ Kyle Pitts Sr. and Charlie Woerner Are Fueling Atlanta’s Identity

FLOWERY BRANCH, Ga – Buried in the storylines of Sunday’s win over Minnesota was the strong performances of the pair of Atlanta Falcons tight ends. Kyle Pitts Sr. and Charlie Woerner elevated their game on Sunday – even if it does not always show up on a stat sheet. 

Offensive coordinator Zac Robinson was quick to recognize that the Minnesota Vikings were laying out a runway for his rushing attack. The Falcons' offense ran out of ‘12 personnel’ (one running back and two tight ends) on 55 of their total 63 plays against the Vikings (87.3%), which is the highest rate in any game in the Next Gen Stats era (since 2016). 

This stands in direct contrast to the rest of the league, which largely runs out of ‘11 personnel’ (one running back and one tight end) in an effort to get an extra wide receiver out on the field. Atlanta ran just eight plays with this grouping, or 46.5% less than the rest of the NFL. 

Those results were clear, as the Falcons achieved a 53% success rate out of ‘12 personnel’ compared to just a 13% success rate from ‘11 personnel.’

For the Falcons’ offensive coordinator, he is just focused on making sure that the team’s best 11 players are out on the field for any given play. 

“What's our best personnel, our best 11, out on the field every single time we take it?” Zac Robinson said about his rationale. “But if the game calls for it to be heavier 11, we'll do it. If a game calls for it to be heavier 12, we'll do it. If a game calls to be balanced and mixed, we'll do it, based on what we're seeing from the defensive side of the football and where we think we can attack them.”

Fortunately for the Falcons, they feel they have two strong tight ends that they can deploy on a down-to-down basis. 

“Man, he's versatile. He's been versatile. You don't really see him much in the pass game based on film, but he shows it out here in practice,” quarterback Michael Penix Jr. said about Woerner. “He goes out, he can make catches too. He runs all the routes that we have the tight ends running as well. To be able to see him – the way that he is in the run blocking game and pass blocking game, you see that all the time.” 

But what he does in the receiving game is not what makes the second-year Falcon important to this offense. Instead, it’s what he provides in protection and in run blocking. 

“He was doing some of the stuff that running backs usually do, and he handled it perfectly,” Penix continued about Woerner and his blocking ability. “Just knowing who he was keying and being able to get out on his routes whenever he knew that he didn't have anybody to pick up. So, it's awesome to see what he can do.”

Woerner played 85% of the offensive snaps. The 6’5”, 241-pound tight end is effectively an extension of the offensive line, and they leaned on him to the tune of 218 yards and 5.6 yards per carry against the Vikings. 

Now, compare that to when Woerner was on the field on just 42% of offensive snaps in Week 1, when they struggled to generate anything on the ground, averaging just 2.5 yards per carry. 

Oftentimes, a successful rushing attack starts when Woerner is leading the charge into the hole. 

His running mate, Kyle Pitts, is the Yin to Woerner’s Yang. The former fourth-overall pick has seemingly found new life in the final year of his rookie contract this season. That success has a lot to do with his willingness to engage as a blocker. 

“Kyle's playing great. He's playing really good football,” Robinson said. “The more that he can be a legitimate blocker, which he's done a great job and he's shown great effort, great strain out there. He's handling the edges really well when we ask him to do so. Obviously, that just legitimizes everything else in the pass game.” 

A long-held criticism of Pitts was that he often looked uninterested in doing the dirty work in the trenches, limiting how often he could be on the field. According to his offensive coordinator, the fifth-year tight end is putting in the extra work with position coach Kevin Koger. 

With 11 receptions for 96 yards through two weeks, the stat sheet is not exactly popping off, but the extra effort is showing on the field. Even though 11 of his 13 targets have come from under 10 air yards (8.4 average), he represents a quarter of the Falcons’ 20 longest plays of the season. 

“He's still a young player developing, and he's kind of finding his rhythm in terms of his weekly rhythm and what that looks like, and I think he's just going to continue to ascend,” Robinson finished. “I know he's got a ton of confidence. The guys have a ton of confidence in him.” 

At the end of the day, Pitts and Woerner are giving the Falcons exactly what they need: balance. One keeps the chains moving with toughness in the trenches, the other stretches defenses with playmaking.

Against Carolina and moving forward, their versatility will be counted on.