{"id":793617,"date":"2026-03-05T11:39:18","date_gmt":"2026-03-05T11:39:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/793617\/"},"modified":"2026-03-05T11:39:18","modified_gmt":"2026-03-05T11:39:18","slug":"sauce-gardner-will-go-to-extreme-lengths-to-keep-alec-pierce","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/793617\/","title":{"rendered":"Sauce Gardner will go to extreme lengths to keep Alec Pierce"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"https:\/\/clutchpoints.com\/nfl\/indianapolis-colts\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Indianapolis Colts<\/a> defensive back <a href=\"https:\/\/clutchpoints.com\/tag\/sauce-gardner\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Sauce Gardner<\/a> is willing to do something illegal to ensure that wide receiver Alec Pierce stays in town \u2014 jokingly, of course.<\/p>\n<p>Amid news that Pierce <a href=\"https:\/\/clutchpoints.com\/nfl\/indianapolis-colts\/colts-rumors-alec-pierce-deal-feels-possible-theres-catch\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">could test the waters of the NFL free agency<\/a>, Gardner hopped on social media and <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/iamSauceGardner\/status\/2029290971318346015\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">shared his hilarious plan<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cShould I lock Alec Pierce in my basement and force him to sign the contract papers?\u201d Gardner wrote in a post on X (formerly Twitter).<\/p>\n<p>The Colts should also want Pierce to remain, and they have to show it in the form of a hefty new contract for the former Cincinnati Bearcats star wide receiver.<\/p>\n<p>Pierce has taken his game up a level in each of the last two seasons. After posting a total of 824 receiving yards and seven touchdowns on 37 receptions and 69 targets through 16 games in the 2024 NFL season, he set a new career high in the 2025 campaign with 1,003 receiving yards and six touchdowns on 47 catches and 84 targets in 15 games.<\/p>\n<p>Pierce entered the league in 2022, when the Colts selected him in the second round (53rd overall) of that year&#8217;s NFL draft before signing a four-year, $6.6 million contract with Indianapolis.<\/p>\n<p>Daniel Jones, whom Indianapolis franchise tagged,\u00a0 is <a href=\"https:\/\/clutchpoints.com\/nfl\/minnesota-vikings\/nfl-rumors-daniel-jones-vikings-ideal-qb-target-colts-transition-tag-theres-problem\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">expected to be the Colts&#8217; starter<\/a> under center in 2026, and he also likely wants to see his top downfield weapon return.<\/p>\n<p>With the Colts deciding not to use a franchise tag on Pierce, he can potentially leave the team this offseason, and there shouldn&#8217;t be a lack of interest in him from teams outside of Indianapolis.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Indianapolis Colts defensive back Sauce Gardner is willing to do something illegal to ensure that wide receiver Alec&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":793618,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2059],"tags":[4994,2005,7,2004,392,2381,6,2592,7536],"class_list":{"0":"post-793617","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-football","11":"tag-indianapolis","12":"tag-indianapolis-colts","13":"tag-indianapoliscolts","14":"tag-nfl","15":"tag-nfl-free-agency","16":"tag-sauce-gardner"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/116176379318208790","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/793617","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=793617"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/793617\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/793618"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=793617"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=793617"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=793617"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}