Atlanta Falcons star in jeopardy of missing game against Tampa Bay Buccaneers
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The Tampa Bay Buccaneers and Atlanta Falcons will match up in a rivalry game on Sunday afternoon. Both teams have dealt with injuries early in the season but the Buccaneers' offense benefitted from the return of Mike Evans, Chris Godwin, Julio Jones, and Donovan Smith against the Kansas City Chiefs.
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With that being said, Atlanta's offense will likely take a hit over the next few weeks with a few key players banged up. Star tight end Kyle Pitts missed practice on Wednesday and Thursday while dealing with a hamstring injury, per a release from the team. Pitts was the only player on the Falcons active roster that was unable to participate.
Considering that running back Cordarrelle Patterson was just sidelined due to knee surgery, the Falcons are running thin on playmakers. Patterson is expected to return later this year but he won't play against the Buccaneers on Sunday.
Pitts has gotten off to a slow start this year but some of that can be attributed to Marcus Mariota's performance. Mariota is averaging less than 200 passing yards a game and has thrown three touchdowns to four interceptions. He's coming off his worst performance of the season in a win over Cleveland where the former Oregon star completed 7/19 passes for 139 yards and an interception.
The struggles from Mariota have trickled down to the stat-lines of Pitts and other skill players. The Philadelphia native has caught just 10 passes for 150 yards and 0 touchdowns. Five catches and 87 of the yards came in Atlanta's win against Seattle in week 3.
The 6-foot-6, 246-pound tight end still has a lot of potential to turn things around. Pitts totaled 68 catches for 1,026 yards and one touchdown as a rookie. He became the second tight end in NFL history to record 1,000+ receiving yards during his first year in the league.
Tampa Bay and Atlanta will kick off at 1:00 p.m. on FOX.
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