If Alec Pierce has indeed played his final game for the Indianapolis Colts, that game served as a perfect microcosm of the Colts’ 2025 season. Spectacular early on, and then, on the brink of doing something truly historic, an almost inconceivable stroke of bad luck brought everything crashing down.
That’s the way it went for the fourth-year receiver in Indianapolis’ week 18 loss to the Houston Texans.
Pierce is scheduled to be an unrestricted free agent when the league year turns over in March. His services will be much in demand. Along with Dallas’ George Pickens, Pierce is one of the wideouts who offer teams elite performance while still in his mid-20s. The Giants’ Wan’Dale Robinson is the only other comparable player likely to be on the market, but he is more limited to slot duties.
Alec Pierce, as he has shown over the past two seasons, is not limited to anything. The 2022 second-round pick may not yet be a household name, but he has just turned in one of the most extraordinary seasons that a receiver has played this century.
Colts' Alec Pierce excelled in 2025 and he appears to still be getting better
Alec Pierce came to Indianapolis with the 53rd overall pick in the 2022 draft. The Colts had wasted their first-round pick that year in the Carson Wentz trade, so fans were eager when GM Chris Ballard made his initial selection of the year.
He made them wait.
Ballard traded down in the second round to collect extra picks – one of which resulted in Bernhard Raimann – and chose Pierce one spot after Pittsburgh selected Pickens. He was the 12th receiver taken that year, and having played his college ball at Cincinnati – not exactly college football elite – he seemed like something of a letdown to many fans.
But Ballard and Frank Reich had seen a player who could provide the thing their offense really lacked – explosive downfield plays. Parris Campbell had been an injury-plagued disappointment. Michael Pittman was a sturdy possession receiver. Indianapolis desperately needed someone who could get deep.
Alec Pierce could get deep.
He had done it in college, and he showed flashes of it early on in the pros. In just his fourth game, the rookie made one of his signature deep plays, adjusting to an underthrown Matt Ryan bomb while his defender fell on the play. It was part of a furious second half comeback against Tennessee that came up just short. It was a taste of things to come.
Pierce improved his yards-per-catch from 14.5 as a rookie to 16.1 in year two. Then last season, he exploded to a league-leading 22.3 while scoring seven touchdowns on just 37 catches.
He built on that success this year, again leading the NFL in yards per catch at 21.3. He went over 1,000 yards for the first time in his career and scored six touchdowns.
Apart from the yards-per-catch numbers, those stats are good, but not exactly elite. However, there is a crucial caveat that other NFL teams will all recognize. Alec Pierce has never been the Colts’ primary option. In his first three seasons, he was the third most-targeted receiver. This year, with the addition of Tyler Warren, he dropped to fourth. And still, he produced.
Pierce’s numbers in 2025 may make him the second most productive wide receiver with fewer than 50 catches in the last 25 years. Only DeSean Jackson in 2010 was arguably better. And it is very close.
Pierce actually has a couple of things in his favor when compared to Jackson. He showed this year that he can run any route. He doesn’t simply use his sprinter’s speed to blow past defenders on every play. He can run slants and outcuts and serve as a possession receiver when needed.
And he does not drop the ball. When he gets his hands on it, he makes the catch. Pierce was credited with zero drops for 2025, an extraordinary statistic for a player who catches so many deep balls. His tracking skills and concentration are as good as anyone in the league.
The players who finished immediately after him in yards-per-catch – Jameson Williams, Christian Watson, Kayshon Boutte – all had at least one drop, and they all trailed Pierce by at least three yards-per-catch. Williams, who had a very good season for the Lions, was credited with ten drops.
Pierce, in case you forgot, had zero.
In his final game, he caught four balls for 132 yards and two touchdowns. Magnificent numbers. He very nearly had a third TD but was out of bounds when he snared Riley Leonard’s third-quarter pass. As he complained about a no-call to an official, he made incidental contact – a cardinal sin in the NFL. He was flagged and ejected, ending his outstanding day, and possibly his very promising career with the Colts.
Chris Ballard will no doubt work to re-sign his emerging star. The Colts’ offense would seem to be in much better shape moving forward with Pierce as its top wideout instead of Pittman. But that decision is not up to Ballard alone.
Alec Pierce is about to get paid a lot of money, potentially $79 million over four seasons, according to Spotrac's projection. Whether it will be by Indianapolis or another NFL franchise is anyone’s guess at this point.