Did Kyle Pitts, to paraphrase Michael Kinsley, make a gaffe by telling the truth? With the Deshaun Watson speculation at a fevered pitch, the Atlanta Falcons’ second-year tight end sent social media ablaze for 10 minutes or so Thursday with a simple seven-word tweet: “It’s about to get scary in Atlanta …”
Did Kyle Pitts accidentally reveal Deshaun Watson’s plans?
This was no innocuous tweet. Pitts and Watson share an agent, David Mulugheta. Mulugheta surely isn’t above using other clients’ platforms to advance his interests.
And Mulugheta spent the last couple of days knee-deep in negotiations with four teams who have (or had) interest in trading for Watson: The Cleveland Browns (who bowed out of the running Thursday), the Carolina Panthers, the New Orleans Saints, and yes, Pitts’ Atlanta Falcons.
Screen grabs are forever pic.twitter.com/I7gXb2L6CZ
— Adam Beasley (@AdamHBeasley) March 17, 2022
And if there was any question about the story behind the tweet, Pitts seemed to erase it by deleting the post within 10 minutes — but not until it was retweeted over 1,400 times and liked over 4,500 times.
Does Pitts have inside information? Is he speculating? Or is he just trolling?
The latter seems unlikely, considering Watson reportedly initiated talks with the Falcons, who already have a quarterback in Matt Ryan. Watson is a former Falcons ballboy who grew up 50 miles north of Atlanta. His interest in joining the Falcons is real.
And if our interpretation of Pitts’ tweet is right, there could be some movement there soon.
One final postscript: New Orleans remains “a strong contender” for Watson, PFN NFL Insider Aaron Wilson reported after Pitts’ tweet Thursday. So, it’s possible that it was simply an excitable young player getting over his skis.
UPDATE: Perhaps realizing the magnitude of his actions, Pitts tried to do some damage control a short time later. He insisted that the tweet was about the Falcons signing cornerback Casey Hayward, who, as Pitts put it, is “my dawg back home.” Believable? We report, you decide.
This is what I was talking about! My dawg back home 🤟🏾 @show_case29 https://t.co/zEGI3g1TXH
— Kyle Pitts👑 (@kylepitts__) March 17, 2022