Colts Sign Pierce - 4 Years, $116m

[Colts And Orioles]

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2026 NFL Free Agency Grades: Dexter Lawrence II, Kirk Cousins

(By Seth Walder and Ben Solak)

https://www.espn.com/nfl/story/_/id/...-draft-outlook




The Colts Re-sign WR Alec Pierce


Terms: ) 4 Years / $116 Million


Grade: ) B -



The top wide receiver on the market is staying in Indianapolis. This looked dicey when the Colts put the transition tag on Daniel Jones, thus allowing Pierce to hit the open market. He was out there for mere minutes before reaching a $29 Million per-year deal to re-sign.

Pierce turned into a legitimately good player last season. He still streaks downfield more than almost anyone -- his rate of deep fade and go routes ranked in the 97th percentile, his air yards per target ranked in the 100th percentile and his depth three seconds into a route also ranked in the 100th percentile. But he's a far cry from someone who just takes the top off a defense to help his teammates ...... he produced in a huge way, too.

Pierce recorded 2.2 yards per route run (though only 1.7 vs. man) last season. His completed air yards per route was 1.8, which also ranked in the 97th percentile among wide receivers. What he does well is bring in more catches than usual for the types of throws he's targeted on, as evidenced by his 74 catch score in ESPN's receiver scores and his 7.7 receptions over expected, according to NFL Next Gen Stats.

And he did it without top-tier quarterback play. No matter what you think of Jones, Philip Rivers and Riley Leonard, they aren't quarterbacks who are expected to artificially boost a deep threat's numbers. And even though Pierce broke out in 2025, he still recorded 1.9 yards per route run in 2024, which reduces the risk of him being a one-year wonder.

I do think there is some risk here. Contested catch ability is less stable than openness from year-to-year, and Pierce didn't score as high (32) in the latter category.

The contract isn't quite as large as it sounds, as $29 Million per year puts Pierce roughly on par with DJ Moore's 2022 extension in Carolina, Chris Godwin Jr.'s extension with the Buccaneers in 2022 and DeVonta Smith's extension with the Eagles in 2024 after adjusting for cap inflation. The deal is well below the top of the market for receivers (which is over $40 Million per-year), as it should be. Still, it's a million or two stronger than I thought it would be. More important, it's perhaps a couple million more than it needed to be.

I thought that the Colts made a mistake using the transition tag on Jones instead of the franchise tag on Pierce. I have a hard time believing any team would have been excited to throw a ton of money at Jones knowing he will likely miss a fair bit of time and/or be less effective in 2026 while Pierce clearly had a commanding market. Had the Colts kept control of him via the franchise tag, however, I believe they would have saved money on both him and Jones while retaining both. ) (Seth Walder)

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