Colts’ Alec Pierce on signing new 4-year deal: ‘I think we can be special’

Pierce said last week on Kay Adams’ ‘Up & Adams’ show that he expected to come out of free agency as a No. 1 receiver – both in terms of his salary, as well as his targets. Both will skyrocket in 2026 and beyond. Pierce made just $3.656 in base salary on the final year of his rookie deal in 2025, counting $4.151 million against the cap after receiving a $1.98 million signing bonus entering the league as a second-round pick in 2022. Though he led the NFL in yards per catch for the second year running last year (21.3 yards per catch), he saw just 84 targets – building upon 69 in 2024, 65 in 2023 and 78 as a rookie in 2022.

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Later Monday afternoon, the Colts agreed to terms of a trade that will send the Colts’ previous No. 1 receiver, Michael Pittman Jr., to the Steelers for a late-round pick swap, according to multiple league sources. For three straight seasons (2021-23), the sixth-year receiver led the Colts in the four most important receiving metrics: catches, targets, yards and touchdowns. But the tide there began to shift in 2024, with Josh Downs edging Pittman in catches while Pierce took the team lead in yards and scores. Pittman led the Colts in receptions in 2025 (80) as well as touchdowns (seven), but rookie tight end Tyler Warren narrowly finished with more targets and Pierce with more yards.

Not only does sending Pittman, who has agreed to terms on a new three-year deal for $59 million upon arrival, to Pittsburgh open up opportunities in the passing game for Pierce, Warren and Downs, but trading Pittman also frees up $24 million in cap space that will be crucial to both balancing the books and securing the return of Pierce, whose 1,000-yard season with fewer than 90 targets became just the third such season by a receiver in the NFL since 1990.

“I think I can get a ton more targets, and that’s what I’m most excited about with getting paid and getting a big contract,” Pierce said last week on Adams’ show. “I’m no longer going to be an 80-target (per year) player. If I get paid this big contract, they’re going to have to throw me the ball more nd just give me more things.

“A lot of times, the stuff I was doing was down the field, and it was pretty low-percentage stuff, but more of the short and intermediate game, that’s probably a bit easier for completions, and I’m going to take on a larger portion of those, because you have to justify paying me all this money. You can’t just be a guy who’s catching two balls a game, you know?”

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Pierce said Monday on McAfee’s show there’s a strong belief in his conversations with Colts brass that the franchise can return to its first-half form of 2025. Minus Pittman and perhaps free agent offensive lineman Braden Smith, the reset of the team’s starters on the offensive side of the ball are set to return.

“I think from what we did early in the year (in 2025), you can see we had something going. I know we’re going to have a lot of the same pieces and then just work on getting better,” Pierce said. “I’m excited. We added my boy Sauce (Gardner) to the roster, but then he got injured and stuff like that. It just wasn’t rolling our way last year. You guys know how it is to make the run and go the whole way, there are things outside of football, and you’ve got to be lucky in terms of guys staying healthy. A lot of things have to fall your way, and I felt like those things didn’t go our way last year.

“But I know we can be special.”

Joel A. Erickson and Nathan Brown cover the Colts all season. Get more coverage on IndyStarTV and with the Colts Insider newsletter.

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This article originally appeared on Indianapolis Star: Alec Pierce on signing new deal with Colts: ‘I knew where my heart was’