{"id":756466,"date":"2026-02-16T18:14:26","date_gmt":"2026-02-16T18:14:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/756466\/"},"modified":"2026-02-16T18:14:26","modified_gmt":"2026-02-16T18:14:26","slug":"key-player-on-colts-offense-mentioned-as-potential-cut-candidate","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/756466\/","title":{"rendered":"Key player on Colts’ offense mentioned as potential cut candidate"},"content":{"rendered":"

Each NFL beat writer for The Athletic<\/a> selected a potential cut candidate this offseason from their respective teams. When it comes to the Indianapolis Colts<\/a>, the choice is an obvious one.<\/p>\n

Wide receiver Michael Pittman.<\/p>\n

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This is who James Boyd<\/a> selected as the Colts<\/a>‘ possible cut candidate. The reason this is fairly obvious is that Pittman is set to earn $24 million<\/a> next season and has a cap hit of $29 million.<\/p>\n

“There is no way Indianapolis will pay him that salary, especially after Alec Pierce supplanted him as the team\u2019s No. 1 receiver,” Boyd wrote. “Pittman could either restructure his contract to reduce his salary and remain with the Colts, or they could release him.”<\/p>\n

For some context around Pittman’s contract, he will have the seventh-largest<\/a> salary cap hit of any receiver in football. His base salary is tied for the seventh-largest as well.<\/p>\n

While Pittman continues to provide a steady, reliable presence in the Colts<\/a>‘ passing game, his production compared to his base salary and cap hit doesn’t align.<\/p>\n

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Pittman’s 773 receiving yards this past season ranked 29th in the NFL, according to PFF<\/a>.<\/p>\n

If the Colts were to move on from Pittman, the team would create $24 million in salary cap savings. That’s cap space that could go towards re-signing Alec Pierce and others.<\/p>\n

Pittman is aware of what could transpire this offseason.<\/p>\n

\u201cI’ve been here for six years, it’s been a good six,” Pittman said after the 2025 season via ESPN<\/a>. “I’m hoping it’s not, but if this is my last, then I’ve really had a great time playing here.\u201d<\/p>\n

Pittman continued, “Every player is self aware. I know I didn’t cut it. And I look back at the first half, I’m like, man, it was going so good. And then something pivoted, it changed and then it went downhill. So obviously when you have a year like this, I mean, you know that change can come.\u201d<\/p>\n

This article originally appeared on Colts Wire: Colts’ WR Michael Pittman a possible cut candidate this offseason<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Each NFL beat writer for The Athletic selected a potential cut candidate this offseason from their respective teams.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":740704,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2059],"tags":[4994,16916,2005,7,2004,392,2381,11622,4983,6,7238],"class_list":{"0":"post-756466","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-base-salary","10":"tag-colts","11":"tag-football","12":"tag-indianapolis","13":"tag-indianapolis-colts","14":"tag-indianapoliscolts","15":"tag-james-boyd","16":"tag-michael-pittman","17":"tag-nfl","18":"tag-salary-cap"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/116081673445496926","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/756466","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=756466"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/756466\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/740704"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=756466"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=756466"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=756466"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}