{"id":797842,"date":"2026-03-07T06:41:36","date_gmt":"2026-03-07T06:41:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/797842\/"},"modified":"2026-03-07T06:41:36","modified_gmt":"2026-03-07T06:41:36","slug":"robust-market-and-significant-price-tag-awaiting-colts-alec-pierce","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/797842\/","title":{"rendered":"&#8216;Robust&#8217; market and &#8216;significant price tag&#8217; awaiting Colts Alec Pierce"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>March 6, 2026, 8:07 p.m. ET<\/p>\n<p class=\"gnt_ar_b_p\">It sure sounds like the <a href=\"\/\" data-t-l=\":b|e|k|\u2691u\" class=\"gnt_ar_b_a\">Indianapolis Colts<\/a> are going to have a lot of competition when it comes to trying to re-sign free agent wide receiver Alec Pierce.<\/p>\n<p class=\"gnt_ar_b_p\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/athletic\/\" data-t-l=\":b|z|k|\u2691u\" class=\"gnt_ar_b_a\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">The Athletic&#8217;s<\/a> Dianna Russini posted on X that Pierce&#8217;s market is going to be &#8220;robust.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p class=\"gnt_ar_b_p\">&#8220;Teams around the league in need of a receiver are already bracing for a significant price tag,&#8221; Russini wrote.<\/p>\n<p class=\"gnt_ar_b_p\">Pierce surpassed the 1,000-yard mark for the first time last season, and he&#8217;s led the league in yards per catch two years in a row.<\/p>\n<p class=\"gnt_ar_b_p\">With Daniel Jones receiving the <a href=\"http:\/\/coltswire.usatoday.com\/story\/sports\/nfl\/colts\/2026\/03\/03\/why-indianapolis-colts-transition-tag-daniel-jones-how-does-work\/88964055007\/\" data-t-l=\":b|e|k|\u2691u\" class=\"gnt_ar_b_a\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">transition tag<\/a>, the <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/sportsdata.usatoday.com\/football\/nfl\/teams\/indianapolis-colts\/338\" data-autotag=\"d3fda36a-3eb5-4700-8763-caba831c06ae\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\" data-t-l=\":b|e|k|\u2691u\" class=\"gnt_ar_b_a\">Colts<\/a> had no way to prevent Pierce from hitting the open market. Indianapolis could still reach a new deal with Pierce before Monday&#8217;s legal tampering period, but that doesn&#8217;t seem to be in the cards.<\/p>\n<p>Expert NFL picks: <a target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\" data-t-l=\":body nav (nfl)|e|auto spike click:4|\u2691u\" class=\"gnt_ar_b_sp_a\" href=\"https:\/\/sportsdata.usatoday.com\/football\/nfl\/picks\">Exclusive betting insights only at USA TODAY.<\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"gnt_ar_b_p\">Pierce recently said he<a href=\"http:\/\/coltswire.usatoday.com\/story\/sports\/nfl\/colts\/2026\/03\/04\/colts-alec-pierce-says-earned-right-explore-free-agency\/88981789007\/\" data-t-l=\":b|e|k|\u2691u\" class=\"gnt_ar_b_a\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">\u00a0owes it to himself<\/a>\u00a0to explore all options that are available to him.<\/p>\n<p class=\"gnt_ar_b_p\">How GM Chris Ballard chose to handle the Jones and Pierce contracts was\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/coltswire.usatoday.com\/story\/sports\/nfl\/colts\/2026\/03\/03\/colts-taking-risky-approach-retaining-daniel-jones-alec-pierce\/88968364007\/\" data-t-l=\":b|e|k|\u2691u\" class=\"gnt_ar_b_a\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">risky<\/a>, and while the Colts may have the best intentions of bringing Pierce back, anything can happen in free agency.<\/p>\n<p class=\"gnt_ar_b_p\">Along with evaluating the different offers that come his way, Pierce will also prioritize signing with a team that has a stable quarterback situation.<\/p>\n<p class=\"gnt_ar_b_p\">Losing Pierce would be a rough way to kick off free agency in what is a make-or-break year for the current iteration of this team led by Ballard &#8212; or at least that&#8217;s what we think.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"March 6, 2026, 8:07 p.m. ET It sure sounds like the Indianapolis Colts are going to have a&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":797843,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2059],"tags":[95878,2005,7,2004,392,2381,6,49915,95900,96014,95882,96015,95903,95895,95899,95883,95881],"class_list":{"0":"post-797842","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-tagnfl-hub","22":"tag-tagoverall-neutral","23":"tag-tagsports-news","24":"tag-typestory"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/116186532069630247","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/797842","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=797842"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/797842\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/797843"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=797842"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=797842"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=797842"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}