Locked On Colts - Daily Podcast On The Indianapolis Colts - INDIANAPOLIS COLTS: Michael Pittman Jr.'s Void Shouldn't Be Filled By Alec Pierce Alone

Starting point is 00:00:00 It was quite the eventful day for the Indianapolis Colts at the wide receiver position, but how does it affect things both in the short and long term? Let's get to it. You are Locked on Colts, your daily Indianapolis Colts podcast, part of the Locked On Podcast Network, your team every day. All right, welcome to Locked on Colts, part of the Locked On podcast network, now the number one sports podcast network out there. Thank you for joining me.

Starting point is 00:00:36 body. I am Jake Arthur, the Indianapolis Colts beatwriter for Roundtable Sports. And today we're going to cover some of the news that has transpired for the Colts at the wide receiver position today, the very first day of NFL free agency. So at noon Eastern, when news was finally able to start being broken about teams and outside free agents, it was the Colts that made the first really big splash of the day when they inked their own internal prize for agent Alec Pierce to a record breaking deal. Four years, $114 million, $84 million in guarantees, which also includes a $60 million signing bonus. All told, it's the richest contract that a free agent wide receiver has ever received in NFL history. So the Colts obviously doing right by their guy there. And in the last

Starting point is 00:01:23 week or so, we've been hearing from Pierce's side of things what was important to him. So he had an appearance on Kay Adams show last week up in Adams. And he mentioned, multiple times how important quarterback stability was. And, you know, Daniel Jones in particular with the Colts. And I think he really liked the fact that the Colts had made some sort of quasi commitment to the Jones with the transition tag. Now, that doesn't lock Jones into place, but it does show that they're willing, you know, they're willing to keep that guy around for a high price tag.

Starting point is 00:01:55 $37.8 million for a cap hit for 2026 is significant. But, you know, the Colts, I'm sure, have given assurances to Pierce's side that they're still involved in working in a multi-year deal for Daniel Jones as well. I don't want to say those guys are tied at the hip, but I think both players would like to have multi-year deals get done at the same time. So they know that each other is there with the Colts for kind of the long haul. So for Pierce, the Colts gave them the money. You know, they're giving them the quarterback as well.

Starting point is 00:02:30 So when it comes to Pierce, he's doing just fine. Now, the other thing for Pierce was a bigger role in an offense. He's never been a high volume target guy. And, you know, when you get that kind of money, you have to be more, I don't want to downgrade what he's done because he has led the NFL in Yards per catch two years in a row. The entire NFL, he's coming off his first thousand year of year. But you have to be a bigger part of the offense.

Starting point is 00:03:02 And that's nothing that's been his fault, but that far, this far. It's just been his role within the Colts offense. But you look at that and you kind of question how much more he can handle because he has never in his career with the Colts since 2022. He's never been higher than third on the team in targets. He had a career high 84 of them in 2025 and he was fourth on the team behind Michael Pittman Jr., Josh Downs and Tyler Warren. So it does make you wonder, you know, how much more is he capable of? Because he said he's capable of, and for me, my mind, I think he is as well. It just, it's a little curious why we haven't seen it too much yet. Just looking at last year's numbers, for example, of his 84 targets,

Starting point is 00:03:51 only 14 of them came from inside 10 yards. So that's just 16.7% of his past targets were within the sticks essentially last year. So one way the Colts have kind of taken to make room on this roster for Alec Pierce monetarily and to get that higher volume of pass targets is they traded today Michael Pitman, Jr. to the Pittsburgh Steelers. It looks like the Colts probably packaged Pittman and a seventh round pick to the Steelers for one of their sixth round picks. That's not been made official yet, but there is reports.

Starting point is 00:04:29 out there. Mark Caboli from, he covers the Steelers over on that side of things. He was the first one with that. So it's looking like in order to kind of make room for this, you know, the atmosphere that is Alex Pierce right now. The Colts did send Michael Pittman Jr. out of town. They were going to have to do something with that contract anyways. His $29 million cap hit this year was going to be the sixth highest among all NFL receivers. Still a good player, but not top six NFL wide receiver money, obviously. So Michael Pittman Jr. leaves for the Steelers. That does create a void that I do think Alec Pierce can fill a good portion of that, but maybe not all of it. Now, it's going to, it's going to kind of raise the floor of targets for guys like Tyler Warren as well, maybe even

Starting point is 00:05:18 Josh Downs, because Michael Pittman Jr. did a lot of underneath stuff. But you look at it and you don't, I don't think you want to bring in someone who is going to see significant snaps or even like a moderate level of targets. Because again, you're kind of allotting that now to Alec Pierce and Tyler Warren. And so I think free agency is maybe not the best way to go. I think your timeline probably works best if you target someone in the draft. So we're going to talk about that in just a moment. What, you know, with the Colts, we've got this void now where Michael Pittman Jr. exits in a trade. Alec Pierce is the obvious candidate to, you know, plug that in, but I think it's a little more layered than that.

Starting point is 00:06:12 There's kind of some gray area to that. So we'll talk about that in just a moment. Workplace chaos. Deadlines are stacking up and the inbox is overflowing. Plus the one position that you have to fill is still sitting open. When the pressure's on and you need the right higher, this is a job for, sponsored jobs. Indeed, sponsored jobs helps you reach the people who actually fit what you're looking for, skills, experience, location, so you're not just hoping the right candidate stumbles across your post. Plus, here's a stat that says it all. In the minute that I've been talking to you, companies like yours make 27 hires on Indeed, according to Indeed data worldwide. So spend less time searching and more time actually interviewing candidates who check all of your boxes. Less

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Starting point is 00:08:26 Again, create an account and redeem code L-O-C-E-D-O-N for $20 off. Download GameTime. today. All right. Welcome back, everybody. We are talking NFL free agency when it comes to the Colts. And like we mentioned, they had a pretty eventful day at wide receiver today. A long-term commitment is made to Alec Pierce, huge money as well.

Starting point is 00:08:51 And then Michael Pittman Jr. You know, Mr. Colt, one of the prototypical cults of the last half dozen years, he's been traded to the Steelers. So we bid him farewell. But you know what? nice little three-year extension for him, $59 million. So I think he's doing all right. But let's look at how the Colts can kind of fill this void a little bit. So when I picture this, so Pittman goes out the door, you've got Alec Pierce here,

Starting point is 00:09:18 who's going to have an expanded role, obviously. Tyler Warren will have an expanded role. You could probably even say the same for Josh Downs. You've got a guy like Ashton Doolin back there who you maybe will just keep in the same role where he does some gadget stuff. he does some blocking, which he does really well. But if you wanted to have him do some of like the yards after catch bubble screen stuff that they always tried to do with Michael Pippin Jr., you could probably do that with Ashton doing.

Starting point is 00:09:45 If you wanted, if you wanted to just, you want to put together a complete wide receiver core and you don't want to kind of promote from within, there are some cheaper free agents. I don't love the free agent route, but there are some cheaper free agents that I don't hate because I consider who's going to be the most cost effective and are they going to demand a big role or not? Or will they be fine with the role that is probably best suited for what the Colts have to offer? So Nick Westbrook-Akeena is a guy who I've noticed playing against the Colts before, I think would fill the role quite well. He's always been able to make big plays. He's a big-bodied guy.

Starting point is 00:10:28 Can you get some yards after the catch as well? he's never been a high volume guy either. He was with the Titans for a while. Most recently with the dolphins, he was cut in a cost-cutting measure. They kind of signed him to too big of a contract in for agency a couple years ago and kind of trying to save face now. Another IU kid, the days of pre-Signetti as well, so you kind of got to appreciate what he went through.

Starting point is 00:10:53 And then Gabriel Davis as well. Went through a couple stints with the Buffalo Bills as well as the Jacksonville Jaguars. he was always a big play guy as well, another big body player. So I'd be cool with those guys. They should be pretty cost effective. I would think you could get them within $5 million, maybe a little underneath, possibly, because I'm not trying to break the bank for a receiver. I much prefer the route where you go get one within the first three or four rounds of the draft.

Starting point is 00:11:23 So what I've got here, you got your I, you guys, of course. You got to look at Omar Cooper Jr. and Elijah Surat. Different types of players. Cooper's kind of like the total package. He's got explosion. He's got yak. He's got great hands.

Starting point is 00:11:37 Wins 50, 50 balls. You know, he tested well. So he's kind of steadily climbing. Wouldn't really be shocked to see him in the bottom of the first round. But Elijah Surat, he kind of is Michael Pittman, Jr., to be honest with it. He's not explosive, but he's a crafty route runner and he does get open. And he gets separation because of, you know, body control and understanding how to use his body to get leverage and coverage, very sure hands as well. Thickly built.

Starting point is 00:12:09 He's got a good build. Again, he has always reminded me of Michael Pittman Jr. in the first place. You could probably get him around the fourth round. Malachi Fields, another Indiana-based guy from Notre Dame that we've been talking about a lot here. He's about 6-4-218, 220. he's a big 50-50 play guy. I think his on-field speed is a lot better than his testing speed. Testing speed was only 4-6, which broke my heart, of course.

Starting point is 00:12:36 But his GPS data is a whole lot better than that. And then you've got some high-volume guys like Skylar Bell to Yukon, Jeremy Bernard out of Alabama, kind of, again, whole package guys. Bell's a little undersized, but he was incredibly productive at Yukon. Bernard can kind of do a bit of everything. kind of cut from that same cloth as Omar Cooper Jr. And then another guy that we've done a prospect spotlight on, and we've talked a bit about, is Deshaun straddling out of Ole Miss.

Starting point is 00:13:05 This is probably the guy, I think you target, probably in about round three. A big-bodied guy, just like Malachi Fields, where you're like that 6-3-6-4, over 200 pounds, yards after catch, explosive. He's got the spectacular catchability to him. I think struggling is definitely the way to go because also his timeline matches up with where the Colts timeline is. If you're looking for, I don't want to call him a project, but if you're looking for a guy who has explosive tendencies

Starting point is 00:13:37 to where he could be your top receiver eventually within a few years, but not necessarily right away and you need a little time to get him acclimated to the NFL, struggling makes a whole lot of sense. So there you have it, guys. The Colts eventful day at wide receiver. They do probably need to still do a little something because, again, not only are they trying to replace Michael Pitman Jr.'s roster spot, but they had A.D. Mitchell as well that they traded away during the season. So a couple spots left open that the Colts need to find a way to fill somehow, not just with guys from within the building.

Starting point is 00:14:14 So thanks again for joining us today for this bonus episode of Locked on Colts. we obviously will be back with you water to all coverage of everything free agency. I hope you guys have enjoyed our coverage as of the first day, Monday. I know we were quite busy tack on all that stuff for you, but we love to do it and we're looking forward to hopefully

Starting point is 00:14:32 more news from the Colts on Tuesday. Make sure you subscribe to our show so that you get all of the latest episodes. If you don't already, follow at Locked on Colts at Jake Arthur, NFL, and at Zach Hicks 2 on social media. Plus, don't forget, if you never miss an episode, then the everyday or

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Starting point is 00:15:18 and I'm sure we will be talking with you quite soon.

Locked On Colts - Daily Podcast On The Indianapolis Colts - INDIANAPOLIS COLTS: Michael Pittman Jr.'s Void Shouldn't Be Filled By Alec Pierce Alone

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