How Alec Pierce turned into the NFL’s Hottest Free Agent Target

Indianapolis Colts wide receiver Alec Pierce (14) makes a catch in front of Houston Texans cornerback Kamari Lassiter (4) for a touchdown Sunday, Nov. 30, 2025, during a game at Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis. | Grace Hollars/IndyStar / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images Alec Pierce is heading into the offseason as one of the Colts most coveted free agents.

Similar to how Michael Pittman was after 2023, locking up Pierce will provide some necessary certainty to a position group that has never had a cornerstone player.  Two years ago— that might not have been the sentiment. Pierce was about to head into his third year, with some serious question marks about his ability to thrive in the NFL. He looked to be more of a role player than starter.

Michael Pittman had put up over 100 catches in Shane Steichen’s RPO driven offense, but the Colts didn’t have a sustainable option as the X receiver. Pierce always had the ability to “play above the rim” and be a deep threat in this offense, but the Colts didn’t always look his way because he hadn’t earned the trust of the players around him for it to be a staple of the offense— that and the QB play was lackluster.

After 2023, Alec Pierce was statistically one of the worst separators in the league, according to NGS. He would get jammed at the line, didn’t have much of a route tree, and wasn’t physical enough to consistently make the plays we’re accustom to seeing. The Colts knew they needed to find an X WR who could stretch the field and win vs press coverage, so they draft Adonai Mitchell in the 2nd round of the 2024 draft.

Coming out of Texas, AD was touted for being the ultimate X WR. He was one of the best separators in college football, had a full route tree, and could run a 4.3 at 6’2, 205 LBs. Chris Ballard promised Alec a chance to compete for the job, and from that point forward, his entire career changed. He came into camp more bulked up and we saw the deep threat ability come to life in 2024.

The Colts offense was fundamentally broken last year relying on a heavy run game and low percentage shot plays to generate explosives, but Pierce was a main reason they could stay afloat. Aaron Rodgers once talked about how an NFL play is just routes ran on the field with various percentages of a completion. For example, a check down in a progression is a route with a 90% chance of being a completion. A slant is..

say 45%, and the posts and fades that Alec Pierce runs are like a 10% chance of a completion. Except with Alec they aren’t actually 10%. He made 50/50 balls 70/30. He could get off press or run by a corner playing 10 yards off. His route tree was still very limited at the time, but he ran those routes as good as anyone in the league. That takes us to this year.

The Colts started the year giving Alec the vast majority of reps, while having packages for AD to come in as the X WR and run more of the 3×1 isolation routes. That was all going well, until they realized Pierce wasn’t just an incredible deep threat, but he also had learned to drop his weight and run intermediate routes as well.

The Colts traded AD Mitchell to the Jets in a package for Sauce Gardener, and the rest is history. I’m not sure I’ve ever seen Alec Pierce get in and out breaks that quickly before https://t.co/zBengDmqvw — Colts Film Room (@ColtsFilmRoom) July 23, 2025 So what does the Alec Pierce journey tell us? For starters, QB play is very important— more than I gave it credit for.

I wrote this about Alec Pierce in the offseason. I don't think I ever doubted him, but one thing I vastly underestimated was how a change at QB would immediately affect his impact on a game. Despite getting limited opportunities, he's capitalized on every single one of them.