GAINESVILLE, Fla. -- The San Francisco 49ers had just completed the blockbuster deal to move up nine spots to No. 3 overall in the 2021 NFL draft when Tim Brewster got a text from his brilliant tight end.
"Is it a QB or is it me?" Kyle Pitts asked Brewster, his position coach at the University of Florida, on March 26.
Traditional football wisdom deems this a silly question. San Francisco surely moved up for a franchise quarterback, and tight ends never go that high. Just 13 have gone in the top 10 since the NFL merger in 1970, with Riley Odoms the highest at fifth overall in 1972.
But Pitts isn't confined by the label on his draft bio. He's a multi-positional weapon, the best overall playmaker in the draft in the eyes of some teams, combining 4.4-second speed in the 40-yard dash with the length of an NBA small forward and route-running savvy. The latest joint mock draft with ESPN draft analysts Mel Kiper Jr. and Todd McShay has Pitts going to the Atlanta Falcons at No. 4 overall.
Couple Pitts' exotic talent with a modern game that celebrates hybrid models, and maybe his text sold his game a few spots short.
"Best tight end film I've ever evaluated -- by far," said a veteran NFL offensive coach of nearly 15 years. "Playing him like a traditional tight end is like leaving a Porsche in the garage. You've got to get him out and move him around."
While Pitts seems perfectly suited for today's versatile NFL, he's got a college teammate who embodies the same: Gators receiver Kadarius Toney, considered a late-first-round prospect.
Their abilities can morph a playbook into a joystick: Pitts, the 6-foot-6, 245-pound tight end who lines up out wide and wins like a precision receiver; Toney, the 6-foot-0, 193-pound slot receiver who can play tailback, return punts and never met a one-one-one matchup he couldn't shake.
The duo combined for 22 receiving touchdowns and 1,754 yards last season, their play each Saturday in The Swamp teeming with possibilities for NFL offensive coordinators.
Teams take the field on Sundays with a simple goal: Get playmakers the ball in space. Ones with a plan will move these chess pieces all over the board.
"We're just football players," Toney said. "Get us the ball however you can."
'He allows you to dream'
Jimbo Fisher's Texas A&M staff delivered a clear message to his defense before a matchup with Florida: Put your hands all over Kyle Pitts, make him work.
That plan sounded great until Pitts slithered through double coverage for an outstretched 8-yard sideline catch in the end zone. Officials deemed Pitts out of bounds. No score. So, no worries. Pitts just stutter-stepped defensive back Myles Jones two plays later, worked a swim move to get open, then soared to grab a 5-yard touchdown pass with Jones draped on his left arm and Leon O'Neal Jr. closing in for a right-side rib shot. And Jones is 6-foot-4, showing how teams try to get creative when guarding Pitts.
Fisher considers himself fortunate that Pitts the "matchup nightmare" left A&M's Kyle Field with a season-low 47 yards and one score. NFL defenses might not be so lucky.
"In college, you can beat him up more," Fisher said. "In pro ball, when you can't touch him as much, he's going to be even better. Big guys can't run with him and little guys can't out-physical him. He's got catch radius, size, a wideout in a tight end's body. Plus, he understands routes."
A tight end hasn't generated this much pre-draft buzz since Vernon Davis went sixth overall in 2006. Davis was considered stouter at 6-foot-3 and 248 pounds, and he had elite measurables (a 4.38-second 40, 42-inch vertical). Pitts is leaner and has to eat furiously to flirt with 250 pounds.
But Davis didn't run routes like Pitts did. Pitts lined up just about everywhere in 2020, with 48% of his routes starting in line, 22% out wide and 30% in the slot, according to ESPN Stats & Information research. While most tight ends dominate the middle of the field, just eight of Pitts' 43 receptions last season were between the hashes. Pitts needed just eight games to catch 12 touchdown passes (second most in SEC history by a tight end) and roll up 770 yards.
Pitts accentuated that versatility at his pro day, working the inside with elite change of direction, then going deep for a 60-yard bomb that required all 83⅜ inches of his wingspan to corral (that wingspan is the longest of any receiver or tight end in the past 20 years, per Pro Football Focus data).
He ran a 4.44 40-yard dash and "competed his ass off" in every drill despite his status as a surefire top-10 pick, one veteran NFC scouts said afterward.
"I learned the game from the outside," said Pitts, referring to his days as a receiver early in his Florida tenure. "Switching to tight end helped me a lot, so when I did get the chance, I was moving and shaking like a receiver while I learned to block like a tight end."
The Gators hired Brewster in February 2020 to help refine Pitts, who had just completed a 54-catch, 649-yard, five-touchdown campaign in 2019.
Within seconds of watching Pitts work out in person that offseason, Brewster envisioned a player with no limits. So he asked Pitts if he wanted to become a complete tight end; Pitts responded, "Absolutely."
Brewster knows what a complete tight end looks like. He coached Antonio Gates with the Chargers in 2003, watching a former basketball standout transition to an eventual Hall of Famer.
"With a lot of tight ends you say, 'We can do this but we can't do that,'" Brewster said. "With Kyle, you can do everything. He allows you to dream."
Brewster and Pitts got to work on George Kittle tape for the ultimate blend of passion and lay-you-out blocking technique. One perceived knock on Pitts' game is his blocking. Pitts has allowed five pressures on 130 pass block plays over his career since 2018, good enough for a 3.8 pressure percentage allowed (71st best out of 81 tight ends on 1,000 minimum offensive snaps). But several NFL scouts say he's a capable blocker, and in 2020 his pressure rate improved from 4.3% in 2019 to 2.9%. And Brewster saw enough come-out-of-your-shoes moments, such as Pitts stuffing a defensive end on a one-back power play, to make Kittle proud.
Nuanced route running is what separates Pitts.
He can win inside on a three-step slant route with the corner shading that way because he can feint with his feet like boxers feint with punches, Brewster said. He accelerates quickly, but he has a plan every time he takes the line of scrimmage.
Or, as a last resort, he can just overpower a defender. There is no 50-50 ball with Pitts -- "it's 80-20," Brewster said.
"There were plays in the Alabama game where he was spinning around and pretty much catching balls backhanded," said Toney about Pitts, who got flipped around on a late-game, 22-yard touchdown catch in the SEC title game, drawing pass interference in the process. "He does the most amazing stuff every single day."
And he proved more reliable with his hands. After nine drops in his first two seasons at Florida, Pitts didn't drop a pass in 66 targets last season.
If teams rummage through the critique bag -- and that takes effort with Pitts -- there's a very mild concern he'll have trouble consistently beating good defensive backs when outside.
One veteran NFL offensive coach scoffs at that idea.
"I'd be comfortable lining him up on anyone but maybe Jalen Ramsey," the coach said.
'To call him a gadget guy is almost insulting'
Those asked to describe Toney's game typically answer the same way: Guarding him in the open field is futile.
"I've yet to see someone cover him one-on-one in the open field," Florida quarterback Kyle Trask said.
That has pretty much been the case for years now. Senior Bowl executive director Jim Nagy remembers hearing about Toney's legend as a prep quarterback in 2018. Nagy was moving to Senior Bowl headquarters in Mobile, Alabama, where stories spread about Toney at nearby Blount High School, "stopping on a dime in a way you can't coach." Three years later, Nagy watched Toney break off defensive backs in Senior Bowl one-on-ones by 5 to 10 yards of separation. "One hesitation and he's gone," Nagy said.
Toney became a master at shaking defenders at Florida, with him and Alabama's DeVonta Smith trading highlight-reel plays each week in the SEC.
Though primarily a slot receiver in Florida, with 78% of his routes coming from the inside, Toney also rushed the ball 19 times for 161 yards, ranking among the top five nationally in touches (89), scrimmage yards (1,145), TDs (11) and yards after first contact (297).
On a particular play against Ole Miss, Toney hit light speed on five Rebels defenders surrounding him on a simple jet-motion, one-cut handoff. What should have been a 2-yard gain went for 50. One AFC scout compared him to another Florida great, Percy Harvin, which is good news for advanced offenses that scheme up touches for players who win in space. Harvin went 22nd overall in the 2009 draft, and many mock drafts have Toney in the 18-to-30 range.
"Teams are excited for how they might use me," said Toney, who has had productive Zoom meetings with the Arizona Cardinals, Detroit Lions, the 49ers, Jacksonville Jaguars, Washington Football Team and more. "Most of them see me as a slot receiver and returner. But I have a lot of experience taking the ball out of the backfield. I'm open to all of it."
That San Francisco is talking to Toney is buzzworthy, considering what the team just did with Deebo Samuel.
The 49ers drafted Samuel in the second round of the 2019 draft and turned him into a yards-after-possession demon. As a rookie, he averaged 13.5 yards per touch, including three rushing touchdowns on 14 carries.
"Deebo opened eyes for players like [Toney] -- like, look what you can do with him," Nagy said.
But Nagy is quick to point out that while Toney can handle the jet sweeps and the boomerang running plays, he is a tough slot receiver at the core.
The Gators didn't scheme Toney deep that often, with eight of his 87 targets traveling 20-plus yards downfield. He still forced an SEC-high 21 missed tackles on mostly short-to-intermediate work.
Toney has the mentality of a feisty corner. He wants a challenge, wants contact.
"He plays so much bigger and stronger and he's so competitive," Nagy said. "He's so much stronger on contact than most guys his size. His mindset and strength are what set him apart. He has the joystick ability and can rip under stuff.
"To call him a gadget guy is almost insulting."
Toney doesn't care about gadgets, as long as the ball finds his hands. Toney's game is far from a finished product. Some scouts want to see more refined route running, citing choice routes at Florida that gave Toney options to beat defenders in the moment. At the pro level, he'll need more precision on his routes, the scouts said. One scout questioned the reliability of his hands.
But Toney says he's eager for that challenge, and his days as a high school quarterback taught him to "learn every detail" and "grab the whole playbook."
"I try to put myself through all situations mentally so that when the game comes, I go out there and play free," Toney said. "I envision the defense I'm going to see. I lock in. And with my quickness and my bend, being able to move the way I do, I can handle what I planned to see."
There's a flip side scouts see, too: A special athlete like this shouldn't have his creativity hampered. Asking Toney to run rigid routes all game might take away from the freaky things he can do in one-on-ones.
The wildest thing that happened at Florida's pro day was a busted broad jump that said everything about Toney's ability. Toney's first attempt was 10 feet, 4 inches, which is not impressive. But he jumped up and out instead of in a straight line. After a coach admonished him, he regrouped to jump 11-4. But clearing 10 feet with a Gateway Arch trajectory on that first attempt is silly.
Those who coached Toney's elite burst in college can't wait to see what he does with an NFL playbook.
"He's scratching the surface of what he's going to become at the next level," Florida head coach Dan Mullen said. "He keeps erasing every question people have about him everywhere he goes."
Looking ahead
Pitts and Toney enter the NFL in a perfect era for their skill sets. Modern offenses are schemed up to isolate weapons like them.
The Chiefs and 49ers use pre-snap motion 40% of the time to expose mismatches.
Playmakers are asked to do more, because they can. Tight ends lined up as wideouts 39,301 times since 2018, a 10% increase from the previous three-year span. During that same time frame, running backs lined up in the slot or out wide 10,399 snaps, an 18% increase.
"I just want an offense to have a plan for me," Toney said.
Handling these duties requires the utmost confidence. That's no problem for Pitts. When ESPN asked him if he's the best player in the draft, Pitts responded, "Yes, sir."
"Because I'm versatile," he said. "I'm going to be an impact [player] early and do some things other people cannot. ... That's something special that makes me unique."