Training camp is supposed to be the honeymoon phase, and instead the Colts' new $116 million man is starting his on the sideline. Indianapolis placed Alec Pierce on the Active/Physically Unable to Perform list Monday, a designation that lets him hang around the building and do everything except actually practice.
Adam Schefter broke the news that Pierce landed on the Active/PUP list to open camp.
Colts placed WR Alec Pierce on the Active/Physically Unable to Perform list.
The timing stings a little given the offseason Pierce just had. He led the NFL in yards per catch for the second straight year in 2025, setting career highs across the board with 47 catches for 1,003 yards, and cashed in with a 4-year, $116 million extension that kept him in Indy instead of hitting the open market. That deal came in the same stretch the Colts slapped the transition tag on Daniel Jones, effectively building the passing offense around the two of them for the foreseeable future.
SleeperNFL's fantasy-focused account flagged the PUP news for anyone drafting Colts pass-catchers.
Colts WR Alec Pierce has been placed on the PUP list.
The Active/PUP list isn't a season-ending designation by itself — guys on it can be activated at any point before the roster cuts down to 53 on Aug. 30. The Colts also put linebacker CJ Allen on the same list Monday, so this reads more like a standard camp-management move than a red flag, at least for now.
The real deadline that matters is that cutdown date. If Pierce is still on PUP when rosters trim to 53, he automatically shifts to Reserve/PUP and is locked out of at least the first 4 games of the regular season — a real problem for a Jones-led passing attack that just made Pierce its highest-paid weapon. For now it's a wait-and-see situation, but every training camp practice Pierce misses is one more rep Josh Downs, Michael Pittman Jr. and the rest of the receiver room get to work with Jones instead.