Austin Hooper

Seven targets and 40 yards through five weeks, that is the whole 2026 season so far. The zeros in week 1 and week 5 of 2026 frame it, and even the 9.1 in week 3 of 2026 just matched his best week of 2025, which was also 9.1 back in week 7 of that year. He is running 3.0 points a game against the 3.9 pace our preseason projection sat on, so he is behind even a modest expectation for a tight end we had at 55 points for the year.

The role is the problem, and it starts with where he sits on the Atlanta depth chart, third behind Kyle Pitts and Charlie Woerner. Last season his snap share was 49.9%, TE48 among 137 qualifying tight ends, and his target share fell from 11.8% in 2024 to 5.8% in 2025. Now he lands in an offense where Drake London and Pitts combined for 53% of the targets a year ago, under a new head coach in Kevin Stefanski and a new play caller in Tommy Rees, with nothing in the early weeks suggesting a third tight end gets fed. He has not cleared 15 points in any of his last 13 played weeks, and the 2024 season, 108.6 points and TE24 among 111 qualifying tight ends, looks like the outlier now, with the two years around it at TE45 or worse.

The age line matters too, 31.9 on opening day and season number 11, and players in that spot have seen their targets shrink rather than grow. We would let him go and spend the roster spot elsewhere, and only a Pitts injury would bring him back into the conversation.