The Indianapolis Colts may have placed all their eggs in the same basket. They focused their offseason on making sure that Daniel Jones and Alec Pierce didn't leave, and they had to pay a steep price for that, both literally and figuratively.
Ultimately, general manager Chris Ballard got away with it, but it came at a high cost. Notably, that included sending franchise star wide receiver Michael Pittman Jr. in a salary-dumping trade to the Pittsburgh Steelers.
Pierce clearly has the potential to be the team's primary weapon in the passing game, but he has yet to prove it over a single season. That's why Gilbert Manzano of Sports Illustrated believes he still needs to prove the Colts made the right choice when they chose him over his teammate:
"The Colts went all in on re-signing quarterback Daniel Jones and wide receiver Alec Pierce, but in order to do that, they needed to trade wide receiver Michael Pittman Jr. to Pittsburgh to create cap space. It’s not a certainty that Indianapolis kept the better wideout," Manzano wrote.
Alec Pierce needs to prove himself to the Indianapolis Colts
The Colts signed Pierce to a $114 million, four-year deal, averaging $28.5 million per year. According to Spotrac, that's the most lucrative contract given to any wide receiver this offseason. That's also the 12th-highest among wide receivers, per Over The Cap.
He's coming off leading the league in yards per reception in consecutive seasons, establishing himself as the ultimate big-play specialist with career averages of 18.7 yards per catch. He only needed 47 receptions to top 1,000 yards for the season.
That said, it might be an entirely different thing when he doesn't have a possession receiver like Pittman by his side. Pittman amassed at least 111 targets in all but his rookie season, drawing tons of defensive attention and getting the difficult yards to keep the chains in motion.
The Colts signed Nick Westbrook-Ikhine, but he's not that type of pass catcher. He'll be a rotational piece at best, barring a surprise, and it'll be up to Josh Downs, Tyler Warren, and Pierce to pick up the slack.
Pierce's production came at a bargain price for this team, so he was judged differently. He outplayed his contract and earned the right to get a bigger payday. Now, he won't get any of the slack, as big paydays come with even bigger expectations.
The Colts didn't necessarily have to trade Pittman to make room for his big contract, as they could've also cleared cap space with an extension. They deliberately decided to send him away to make room for Pierce to flourish and prove he was worthy of such a big contract, so now, he has to do it.