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Colts' Big-Money Deal For WR Alec Pierce Makes All the Sense in the World
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Colts' Big-Money Deal For WR Alec Pierce Makes All the Sense in the World

Originally posted on Athlon Sports  |  By Doug Farrar  |  Last updated Mar 9, 2026 1:22 PM ET

How do we define a true No. 1 receiver?

Most would agree that he's the tone-setter for an offense. He's the guy who can go up against the opponent's best cornerback, one-on-one, and win more often than not. He's also the guy who, when defenses are shading their coverage in his direction because they have to, will still come up with the ball and be his quarterback's best friend. He's the receiver who will make the contested catch in traffic, and he will use the middle of the field fearlessly, even when he knows he's going to get his block knocked off.

If these are the standards we're using for that designation, Alec Pierce of the Indianapolis Colts — who just received a new four-year, $114 million contract with $84 million guaranteed over time and $60 million guaranteed at signing — is exactly what you want in a No. 1 receiver, and it's clear that the Colts, who selected him with the 53rd overall pick in the second round of the 2022 draft out of Cincinnati, believe that he is, too.

But now that Pierce's deal puts him in the top 10 of NFL receivers overall, he must prove it as never before.

Last season, Pierce caught 47 passes on 83 targets for 1,003 yards and six touchdowns. That catch rate of 56.6 doesn't exactly pass for ideal efficiency in today's NFL, but consider also that Pierce averaged 21.3 yards per catch — the highest by far of any receiver who took at least 20% of his team's snaps in the 2025 season — and you can see that Pierce was operating with a high-risk/high-reward reception profile that you don't usually see. Pierce doesn't drop the ball (he had one drop in the entire 2025 season, and he's totaled 10 drops over 288 targets in his career), he doesn't create negative plays, and for the most part, he's been at the mercy of a Colts quarterback situation that has ranged from inconsistent to completely awful.

Since 2022, Pierce has cycled through Matt Ryan, Sam Ehlinger, Nick Foles, Anthony Richardson, Gardner Minshew II, Joe Flacco, Daniel Jones, Philip Rivers, and Riley Leonard.

Of those quarterbacks, the only one who was in his prime and playing at his career best was Daniel Jones, who helped the 2025 Colts to an 8-5 start to the season with quarterback play that was above-average to very good, and certainly more than what anybody had a right to expect, given the travails of Jones' own career.

Then, when Jones suffered a torn right Achilles tendon in Week 14, Indianapolis' passing game fell into a crater. Yes, the Philip Rivers story was nice for a few minutes, but after Jones' injury, the Colts fell from +0.15 to -0.12 in Offensive EPA, and from +0.17 to -0.08 in Passing EPA. Rivers and Riley Leonard were not going to get the job done, and the Colts didn't win a single game after their Week 11 bye.

And with all that, Pierce was even more valuable to his offense. With Jones, he caught 35 passes on 62 targets for 715 yards, two touchdowns, and an EPA per target of +0.55. Without Jones, Pierce caught 12 passes on 23 targets for 288 yards, four touchdowns, and an EPA per target of +0.97. In total, Pierce led the NFL among receivers with a +0.66 EPA per target, but the ability to step up and in after the quarterback situation had gone to the dogs is the telling factor here.

Because that's what ideal No. 1 receivers do. They make all of their quarterbacks better; not just the great ones.

“Yeah, we started off great" Pierce said as the 2025 season came down. "I think I'm still trying to figure that out. Started off 8-2. Definitely the schedule was tougher down the stretch, and we had a lot of close games. Didn't pull any of them out and that was just unfortunate, but I think it shows we need to do a better job finishing. I think we had some unfortunate things happen to our team just in terms of injuries and players missing time – big players that we’re really banking on, right? But that happens to everyone in the league and it's about being the next man up, stepping up, finding a way to win, finding a way to finish. So yeah, definitely needed to be better on that, but it's in the past now.”

Pierce also talked about the relationships he had developed along the way.

“Yeah, I’ve got great relationships here with this organization, with the people in this building, the city. They've done so much for me so far. So, I definitely would love to continue to be a part of this organization, and we'll just see where things go.”

Things have gone where they should have for Alec Pierce and the Colts, and with Jones playing in 2026 on the transition tag (if not a longer-term deal), head coach Shane Steichen's offense has a lot more clarity than it did a year ago today.

This article first appeared on Athlon Sports and was syndicated with permission.

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