{"id":747818,"date":"2026-02-12T21:17:28","date_gmt":"2026-02-12T21:17:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/747818\/"},"modified":"2026-02-12T21:17:28","modified_gmt":"2026-02-12T21:17:28","slug":"colts-expected-to-use-franchise-tag-on-either-daniel-jones-or-alec-pierce","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/747818\/","title":{"rendered":"Colts Expected To Use Franchise Tag On Either Daniel Jones Or Alec Pierce"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The Indianapolis Colts are expected to use the franchise tag in the coming weeks on either QB Daniel Jones or WR Alec Pierce, per CBS\u2019s <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cbssports.com\/nfl\/news\/2026-nfl-franchise-tag-candidates-primer\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Jonathan Jones<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright size-medium wp-image-642542\" src=\"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/USATSI_27766315_168383805_lowres.jpg\" alt=\"Daniel Jones\" width=\"300\" height=\"200\"  \/><\/p>\n<p>Jones seems the most obvious candidate for the tag, however the team will have to pay him $47 million in 2026, which is a lofty number for a player coming off of an Achilles injury.<\/p>\n<p>On the other hand, Pierce could earn a lucrative deal this off-season with the wide-receiver class in free-agency being underwhelming, which could incline the team to agree to an extension with Jones and bringing Pierce back on the short-term for one more season.<\/p>\n<p>Jones is scheduled to be an unrestricted free agent this offseason after playing on a one-year, $14 million deal in 2025. Per <a href=\"https:\/\/overthecap.com\/franchise-transition-and-rfa-tenders\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Over The Cap<\/a>, the 2026 projected franchise tag for quarterbacks is $47.3 million.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Jones, 28, was selected by the Giants with the No. 6 overall pick out of Duke in the 2019 NFL Draft. He finished the final year of his four-year, $25,664,056 rookie contract that included a $16,684,768 signing bonus.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>In 2025, Jones appeared in 13 games for the Colts and completed 68% of his passes for 3,101 yards, 19 touchdowns and eight interceptions. He also added 164 yards rushing and an additional five touchdowns.<\/p>\n<p>Pierce, 25, is a former second-round pick by the Colts in the 2022 NFL Draft out of Cincinnati.<\/p>\n<p>He\u2019s in the final year of a four-year $6,601,342 rookie contract that included a $1,980,976 signing bonus.<\/p>\n<p>In 2025, Pierce appeared in 15 games for the Colts and recorded 47 receptions on 84 targets for 1,004 yards (21.3 YPC) and six touchdowns.<\/p>\n<p>Looking for the latest NFL Insider News &amp; Rumors?<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\">Be sure to follow <a style=\"color: #008000;\" href=\"https:\/\/nfltraderumors.co\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">NFL Trade Rumors<\/a> on <a style=\"color: #008000;\" href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/nfltrade_rumors\/\" rel=\"nofollow\">X.com<\/a>\u00a0and <a style=\"color: #008000;\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/nfltraderumors\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">FACEBOOK<\/a>\u00a0for breaking NFL News and Rumors for all 32 teams!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Indianapolis Colts are expected to use the franchise tag in the coming weeks on either QB Daniel&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":747819,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[2059],"tags":[4994,2005,2772,7,2004,392,2381,6],"class_list":{"0":"post-747818","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-indianapolis-colts","8":"tag-alec-pierce","9":"tag-colts","10":"tag-daniel-jones","11":"tag-football","12":"tag-indianapolis","13":"tag-indianapolis-colts","14":"tag-indianapoliscolts","15":"tag-nfl"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/116059746330283087","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/747818","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=747818"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/747818\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/747819"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=747818"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=747818"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=747818"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}