Alec Pierce stands at his locker, a sheepish kind of grin on his face. He's explaining his stance on "selfishness" as a wide receiver, and the balance of focusing on your own success while helping the team win. Simply put, he doesn't agree with the idea that you have to be a little selfish to be a good wide receiver.
"I always try to be a team-first person, and maybe that's why I don't get as many targets as some people," the 24-year-old, who just finished his third season in the NFL, admits with a wry smile. "But I never want to be somebody who's complaining about getting the ball."
It's perhaps one of the least surprising things the humble wide receiver could say. But Pierce isn't just saying that to say it: his numbers back it up.
Pierce finished the 2024 season with 37 receptions on 66 total targets. His fellow starting wide receivers Michael Pittman Jr. and Josh Downs each had over 100 targets and finished with 69 and 72 receptions, respectively; they had more catches than Pierce had total targets.
And yet, Pierce recorded a career high (and team high) 824 receiving yards on those 37 catches. His previous career high was 593 yards in his rookie season, and that was on 41 catches. Pierce also led the Colts in receiving touchdowns in 2024 with seven; he had a combined total of four touchdowns in his first two seasons.
Those aren't even the most impressive numbers to come from Pierce's third season, though. That title belongs to his average yards per catch: a league-leading whopping 22.3 yards.
In posting such impressive numbers, Pierce became the first NFL player to average over 22 yards on at least 37 catches since DeSean Jackson in 2010, and the first Colts player to lead the league in yards per reception since wide receiver Roger Carr in 1976, who averaged 25.9 yards per reception on 43 catches.
It was, without a doubt, a breakout year.
Because here's the thing: just because you don't want to be selfish doesn't mean you don't want to succeed, and nothing proves that more than Pierce's 2024 season.
***
It started about four months before the beginning of the 2024 season, in an office at the Indiana Farm Bureau Football Center. The Colts had just drafted wide receiver Adonai Mitchell in the second round of the 2024 NFL Draft, prompting Pierce, who at the time was still fighting to establish himself as a reliable receiver, to take a walk down to Chris Ballard's office.
"What does this mean for me?" the wide receiver asked his general manager.
Ballard's response was simple: "Nothing. Compete."
That was all Pierce needed to hear.
Ballard's words lit a fire under Pierce, tapping into a new side of the naturally competitive wide receiver. The time had come for Pierce to fight for his spot on the field, and he welcomed it.
Pierce was no stranger to having someone right at his heels trying to overtake him, and he knew he had an advantage: competition actually made him comfortable.
"Ever since I started playing football, really once it got serious, varsity-level high school, I'd say I've always been in a position of competition," Pierce explained. "I think it just brought in a whole new extra level of comfort, like, okay, everything I got to be on is on point.
"Same thing happened in college – I was always kind of battling for a spot. And I think it just made a little bit more like, okay, if I'm out here playing, I really earned it, I'm supposed to be here and it wasn't just oh, this job was just given to me."
As a Bearcat at the University of Cincinnati, Pierce started out on special teams before establishing himself as one of the best wide receivers in program history and a highly skilled deep threat, earning looks from coaches like Colts wide receivers coach Reggie Wayne. Pierce's pre-draft workout before the 2022 NFL Draft was the only one Wayne attended in person, and it told Wayne everything he needed to know about Pierce's potential.
Pierce was selected by the Colts in the second round of the draft, but for the first two years of his career he didn't look quite like that stellar wide receiver Wayne saw at Cincinnati. Turns out, all he needed was some competition.
In early October, Wayne said he was seeing "the Alec (he) saw at Cincinnati" after Pierce set a new single-game career high with 134 receiving yards on three catches, including a 65-yard touchdown, against the Jacksonville Jaguars in Week 5.
Part of that was simply having a quarterback who could play to Pierce's strengths and give him the chance to make big plays downfield; both Anthony Richardson and Joe Flacco had the arm strength necessary to give Pierce opportunities to shine. But what Wayne was really referring to was the confidence Pierce was playing with, knowing he was proving himself with every catch he made. The wide receiver's competitive nature was finally coming out, with tangible results to prove just how much he cared.
"He's a guy you can count on every single game," Pittman said. "Alec's always practiced hard and studied hard, it's just he's getting more opportunities now."
Pierce quickly developed a reputation as a guy who could crack 100 yards with three catches, doing so twice in the first five games of the season and garnering respect from opponents and teammates alike.
"We've all seen the glimpses and the potential that he's had," veteran defensive lineman DeForest Buckner said. "Seeing his development as a player, seeing the competition, he rose to the competition...seeing the year he had, it was awesome to see."
"I've been impressed by the way he shows up and goes to work every day," Flacco said. "I'm also just impressed, obviously, by the athlete he is and the talent he has. So, I think he's done a lot for himself."
Leading the NFL in yards per catch is, on paper, the most impressive part of Pierce's season – and a great representation of what he brings to the Colts. But Pierce has never been a player who searches for titles or records, and that kind of recognition was never his goal for the season; he just wanted to play his game and be the player everyone around him knew he could be.
***
Before the start of the 2024 season, Pierce got a text from a hometown friend.
"7, 850," it read.
What?
Seven touchdowns, 850 yards.
Pierce had never been one to set numerical goals for himself – he thought they brought more frustration than anything, and his focus was always on how he could help his team win. That doesn't mean other people couldn't set them for him, though.
So, with one text message, Pierce suddenly had two things to work toward during the 2024 season: competing hard and proving himself, and meeting the benchmarks set by his friend.
He almost met those tangible numerical goals; the seven touchdowns were spot-on, and 824 yards is pretty darn close to 850 (doing quick math, Pierce determined he likely would have hit 850 yards if he hadn't missed Week 16 with a concussion). And if you factor in total yardage from defensive pass interference calls Pierce drew, he would have been closer to 1,000 yards; Pierce drew four DPIs for 140 yards, which would have brought his season total to 964 yards.
Even more importantly, though, Pierce met his intangible goal. He became the player the Colts saw glimpses of four years ago at Cincinnati, and no number can quantify how important that is.
"Alec Pierce has become who we thought Alec Pierce could be," Ballard said in his end-of-season-press conference. "He didn't bullshit. He didn't complain. He didn't make excuses. He competed, and he is freaking good. He's exactly who we thought he would be."
