{"id":215034,"date":"2025-02-06T17:25:50","date_gmt":"2025-02-06T22:25:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/?p=215034"},"modified":"2025-02-06T17:25:50","modified_gmt":"2025-02-06T22:25:50","slug":"colts-should-not-trade-alec-pierce","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/2025\/02\/06\/colts-should-not-trade-alec-pierce\/","title":{"rendered":"Colts Should Not Trade Offensive Playmaker This Offseason"},"content":{"rendered":"

Alec Pierce is one of the Indianapolis Colts\u2019 top offensive players. With that said, it\u2019s unlikely that the team will trade him this offseason. However, Matthew Schmidt of SI.com<\/a> has the Colts trading the wide receiver to the Carolina Panthers<\/a>:<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Carolina Panthers need to find weapons for Bryce Young in any way possible this offseason, but the problem is that the Panthers don’t have a whole lot of cap room. As a result, Carolina may need to explore creative trades for players still on their rookie contracts, which is why the Panthers may want to place a call to the Indianapolis Colts about Alec Pierce.\u201d<\/p>\n

Don\u2019t expect Pierce to be traded to the Panthers or any team for that matter. The Chicago area native is someone the Colts need to hold on to.<\/p>\n

The Indianapolis Colts Should Not Trade Alec Pierce This Offseason<\/h2>\n

His Career Thus Far<\/h3>\n

Alec Pierce spent three years with the Cincinnati Bearcats. He caught passes from current Las Vegas Raiders<\/a> quarterback Desmond Ridder<\/a>. During his senior year, Pierce had 52 catches for 884 yards and eight touchdowns. He was also named second-team All-<\/sup>American Athletic Conference. He recorded 106 receptions, 1,851 receiving yards, and 12 touchdowns during his collegiate career.<\/p>\n

The Colts drafted Pierce in the second round (53rd overall pick) of the 2022 NFL Draft. He caught 41 passes for 593 yards and two touchdowns as a rookie. Expected to take a Year 2 leap, Pierce regressed in 2023, producing 32 receptions, 514 receiving yards, and two touchdowns.<\/p>\n

Heading into the 2024 season, many fans and pundits believed Pierce was a bust. However, he proved him wrong, putting together a breakout year. This past season, Pierce caught 37 passes for 824 yards and seven touchdowns. And his impressive 22.3 yards per catch<\/a> led the NFL.<\/p>\n

Why the Colts Shouldn\u2019t Trade Alec Pierce<\/h3>\n

Again, Alec Pierce is one of the Colts\u2019 top offensive players. He managed to ditch the dreaded \u201cbust\u201d label and change the minds of all his critics.<\/p>\n

Pierce is set to become a free agent in 2026. Schmidt wrote that it\u2019s unlikely the Colts will re-sign him:<\/p>\n

\u201cIt seems relatively unlikely that Indianapolis will re-sign Pierce next offseason, so it may want to trade him now to recoup some assets for him and open up more playing time for Mitchell.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sure, it\u2019s possible that the Colts won\u2019t re-sign Pierce, especially if he has a horrible 2025 season. But look for him to continue to improve and have a career year next season.<\/p>\n

Pierce, teamed up with Michael Pittman Jr.<\/a> and Josh Downs gives the Colts an excellent wide receiver group for quarterback Anthony Richardson<\/a> to throw to. And don\u2019t give up on Adonai Mitchell<\/a>, who\u2019s coming off a disappointing rookie season. Sometimes it takes a little while for a receiver to develop into an impact player.<\/p>\n

Pierce is known as a deep-threat receiver. He can certainly be exciting at times, especially when he\u2019s catching a 60-yard touchdown pass<\/a> from Richardson, which brings the crowd to their feet. \u00a0So no, the Colts should not trade Alec Pierce this offseason unless they receive an offer they can\u2019t refuse.<\/p>\n

Main Image: Christine Tannous – USA Today Sports<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

An analyst has the Indianapolis Colts trading wide receiver Alec Pierce to the Carolina Panthers this offseason. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4890,"featured_media":215219,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[9094,9564,7800],"class_list":["post-215034","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-colts","tag-alec-pierce","tag-anthony-richardson","tag-indianapolis-colts-news"],"modified_by":"Isaac Zuniga","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/215034","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4890"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=215034"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/215034\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":215221,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/215034\/revisions\/215221"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/215219"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=215034"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=215034"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=215034"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}