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The Indianapolis Colts re-signed wide receiver Alec Pierce to a four-year deal worth up to $116 million just minutes after the NFL's negotiating window opened on Monday. Now that the dust has settled, ESPN's Seth Walder has graded the move.

So what grade did the Colts receive?

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A modest B-.

"The contract isn't quite as large as it sounds, as $29 million per year puts Pierce roughly on par with DJ Moore's 2022 extension in Carolina, Chris Godwin Jr.'s extension with the Buccaneers in 2022 and DeVonta Smith's extension with the Eagles in 2024 after adjusting for cap inflation," Walder wrote. "The deal is well below the top of the market for receivers (which is over $40 million per year), as it should be. Still, it's a million or two stronger than I thought it would be. More important, it's perhaps a couple million more than it needed to be."

Pierce's big-play abilities will garner much of the attention, and understandably so. He's led the NFL in yards per catch the last two seasons, but in 2025, we saw a more refined version of Pierce as well. He surpassed 1,000 receiving yards for the first time and impacted each level of the field with more regularity.

As Walder said, Pierce "turned into a legitimately good player last season."

Walder continued, "Pierce recorded 2.2 yards per route run (though only 1.7 vs. man) last season. His completed air yards per route was 1.8, which also ranked in the 97th percentile among wide receivers. What he does well is bring in more catches than usual for the types of throws he's targeted on."

Walder then pointed out that there is some risk as well with this deal.

"Contested catch ability is less stable than openness from year-to-year, and Pierce didn't score as high (32) in the latter category," Walder wrote.

When the Colts were unable to reach a deal with Daniel Jones and subsequently had to use the transition tag, Pierce's future with the team really came into question. At that point, Pierce had the leverage and the ability to test the free agent waters without any restrictions.

If the script had been flipped and the Colts had used the franchise tag on Pierce, Walder believes that would have saved Indianapolis money on this deal. That factored into Walder's overall grade for the Colts as well.

This article originally appeared on Colts Wire: NFL free agency: What grade did Colts get for Alec Pierce deal?

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