Reporters give advice on rookies Pat Freiermuth, Kyle Pitts, Elijah Moore and more

The 2021 NFL Draft class of tight ends isn’t ready to rival the 2018 class that has produced such key fantasy TE1s as Mark Andrews, Mike Gesicki, Dalton Schultz, Dallas Goedert and Tyler Conklin.

But it’s looking pretty solid at the top, with Atlanta’s Kyle Pitts and Pittsburgh’s Pat Freiermuth playing major roles for their respective teams.

After a relatively slow start Pitts pushed expectations through the roof with consecutive 100-yard games, the first time a rookie tight end had done that since Raymond Chester in 1970 with the Raiders. Since those two games Pitts has had two clunkers (five receptions, 13 targets, 75 yards), and ESPN fantasy sports researcher Kyle Soppe, who generates the fantasy questions herein, would like to know what’s going on with Pitts.

He also has seen the uptick in Freiermuth’s production (16 receptions, 20 targets, 145 yards, three TDs in the past three games) and asks if that will be close to the norm going forward. He also has questions about another rookie, receiver Elijah Moore in New York, as well as James Conner, Conklin and more.

On byes this week and thus not included below are Chicago, Cincinnati, Houston and the New York Giants. Away we go.

AFC EAST

Consecutive underwhelming offensive performances out of the bye: Any reason to worry, or just a blip on the radar?

Oh, there’s reason to worry. An offense that scored 30-plus points in five of the first six games of the year has struggled to put any points on the board in consecutive first halves and only scored two field goals against a bad Jacksonville Jaguars team. The running game has been the biggest issue, partly due to the play of the offensive line. Buffalo may get some help this week with rookie starting right tackle Spencer Brown and tight end Dawson Knox back on the practice field and by going up against the worst defense in the NFL in terms of points (31.4) and yards allowed (408.1). This could be a chance to fix some of the recent woes and get things trending in the right…