If you play fantasy football and are hoping to draft Indianapolis Colts wide receiver Alec Pierce this year, you might not want to count on him for early-season success. Not that fans really know when the wideout will return, based on non-statements by people like head coach Shane Steichen.
Indy's general manager Chris Ballard and coach Steichen are the masters of saying nothing. Ballard's answers tend to be a little longer, but Steichen one-ups him in terms of delivering meaningless responses.
So will Pierce return to practice soon? Perhaps as soon as the joint practice with the Atlanta Falcons this week? Steichen was asked just that on Sunday after practice and said, "Not right now."
Shane Steichen drops a non-answer about Indianapolis Colts wide receiver Alec Pierce
What does that even mean? The question was about practice against the Falcons. The practices aren't literally going on "right now." A better, though still ultimately meaningless, answer from Steichen would have been to say the team still has no timeline for Pierce's return, but that would slightly undermine Ballard's message about the receiver just a week ago.
Some confusion surfaced about whether Pierce had received a second platelet-rich plasma (PRP) injection relatively recently. Someone in the organization told reporters he had, but Ballard then clarified that Pierce had not. Of course, the GM also said more than two weeks ago that Pierce would likely return to practice two weeks later. Or, well...right now.
Getting a second PRP injection after Pierce had surgery in March would imply he is still having issues with his ankle. If that is the case, he wouldn't be close to returning to football, and if that happens, then some fans might feel a bit cheated that not much was known about the severity of Pierce's ankle injury at the time he was signing a new four-year deal worth as much as $114 million in free agency.
Moreover, if the Indianapolis Colts didn't understand that Alec Pierce's recovery from surgery would take so long when they were busy overpaying him, relative to his productivity in his first four seasons, then the team looks foolish. The hope is that Ballard did know getting the wide receiver back might take a while.
Not that the team would be forthcoming about what they did or did not know. Colts fans still don't know when Pierce is returning, and Week 1 seems in question at this point. Just know that Shane Steichen shouldn't be asked about a timeline for his WR1's return. He won't drop a real answer.
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