{"id":688076,"date":"2026-01-19T06:16:42","date_gmt":"2026-01-19T06:16:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/688076\/"},"modified":"2026-01-19T06:16:42","modified_gmt":"2026-01-19T06:16:42","slug":"nfl-analyst-picks-one-free-agent-colts-cant-afford-to-lose","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/688076\/","title":{"rendered":"NFL analyst picks one free agent Colts can’t afford to lose"},"content":{"rendered":"

Jan. 16, 2026, 8:03 a.m. ET<\/p>\n

Who is one free agent that the Indianapolis Colts<\/a> can’t afford to lose this offseason?<\/p>\n

Bradley Locker of Pro Football Focus<\/a> recently answered that question for each NFL team.<\/p>\n

For the Colts<\/a>, Locker did not select the quarterback and pick Daniel Jones — although it does sound like Jones will return.<\/a> Instead, he selected wide receiver Alec Pierce.<\/p>\n

“Among receivers with 75 or more targets, he placed 14th in PFF receiving grade (81.0), 14th in yards per route run (2.10) and eighth in passer rating when targeted (113.7),” wrote Locker. “Additionally, his 96.3 deep PFF receiving grade since 2024 ranked second, behind only\u00a0Jaxon Smith-Njigba<\/a>.”<\/p>\n

Pierce eclipsed the 1,000-yard receiving mark for the first time in his career this past season. He also led the NFL in yards per catch for the second year in a row.<\/p>\n

Expert NFL picks: Exclusive betting insights only at USA TODAY.<\/a><\/p>\n

However, while Pierce’s big play ability garners the attention, his role within the Colts’ offense expanded with him attacking each level of the field more regularly as his route tree expanded. This allowed Pierce to impact the game in a variety of ways.<\/p>\n

Not to be overlooked either, but the attention Pierce garners with his speed forces defenses to spread out, which can open up opportunities for other members of the Colts’ offense.<\/p>\n

Re-signing Pierce has to be on the to-do list, and it seems to be on GM Chris Ballard’s radar.<\/p>\n

“From Day 1, from when we worked him out at the University of Cincinnati, we had a great belief in Alec Pierce,” Ballard said. “I think he’s been a good player every year. … I thought Reggie (Wayne) did a tremendous job helping him expand his game to all three levels. Alec’s a priority.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Jan. 16, 2026, 8:03 a.m. ET Who is one free agent that the Indianapolis Colts can’t afford to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":688077,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[2059],"tags":[95878,2005,7,2004,392,2381,6,49915,95900,96014,95882,96015,95903,96812,95896,95888,95895,95906,95883,97632,95881],"class_list":{"0":"post-688076","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-indianapolis-colts","8":"tag-accessfree","9":"tag-colts","10":"tag-football","11":"tag-indianapolis","12":"tag-indianapolis-colts","13":"tag-indianapoliscolts","14":"tag-nfl","15":"tag-sstssportsnflcolts","16":"tag-sstsncolts","17":"tag-tagalec-pierce","18":"tag-tagamerican-football","19":"tag-tagdaniel-jones","20":"tag-tagindianapolis-colts","21":"tag-tagjaxon-smith-njigba","22":"tag-tagnational-sports","23":"tag-tagnfl","24":"tag-tagnfl-hub","25":"tag-tagoverall-positive","26":"tag-tagsports-news","27":"tag-taguniversity-of-cincinnati","28":"tag-typestory"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/115920305139856504","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/688076","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=688076"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/688076\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/688077"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=688076"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=688076"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=688076"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}