Indianapolis Colts GM Chris Ballard announced that wide receiver Alec Pierce had "a cleanup" done on his ankle that will keep him out until training camp.
The Indianapolis Colts are ushering in a new era at wide receiver in which Alec Pierce takes the reins as the group's leader.
But the on-field portion of that will have to wait.
On Monday, Colts general manager Chris Ballard addressed the media ahead of the 2026 NFL Draft and gave an update on some injured players, announcing that Pierce underwent ankle surgery this offseason with a three-month recovery timeline, keeping him out until training camp.
"So last year he dealt with a – kinda for a lot of the season, he kept dealing with some pain in his ankle," Ballard said. "And so after the season, we talked about if it was good enough, can we get through it again another year? And then right before we signed him, and after we signed him, I asked him – I started asking questions, and he said, ‘I can play through this again.’
"I knew he was hurting at times last year. So finally, after consulting with multiple doctors and him, he had a clean-up done. It'll be training camp, so you won't see him during OTAs. It's a three-month recovery. But we don't expect any long-term implications here, and more of it just came down to – it got to where he was really having to maintenance it a lot last year and the pain, and so he had to kind of fight through that. And at the end of the day, I said, ‘Look, do you want to like – you can play with this, do you want to play with it? Or do you want to knock it out?’ So, he decided to knock it out."
With Pierce returning for training camp, he will miss the on-field portion of the offseason that is essentially dedicated to strength and conditioning and installing the playbook. Although, of course, recovery from his surgery will require its own strength and conditioning, and he's already been in head coach Shane Steichen's system for three years.
The Colts' offseason program officially begins on Tues., April 21, with OTAs being held through the last week of May and the first week of June, followed by mandatory minicamp from June 9-11. Training camp will begin in late July.
Pierce signed the richest free-agent contract for a wide receiver in NFL history this offseason: four years, $114 million, including $84 million in guarantees.
To make room financially and for a bigger role in the passing game for Pierce, the Colts traded wide receiver Michael Pittman Jr. to the Pittsburgh Steelers.
Pierce is now expected to become more involved in the offense than being the downfield and big-play specialist that he had been before. He had a career-high 84 targets last year, but that number should grow significantly moving forward.
For the second consecutive year, Pierce led the NFL in yards per reception (21.3) in 2025, also notching his first-career 1,000-yard season (1,003).
In 64 career games (55 starts), Pierce has caught 157 passes for 2,934 yards (18.7 avg.) and 17 touchdowns.