Michael
Pittman Jr..
Michael
Pittman Jr..
USC· 6'4"· 223 lb· 4.52s 40
"A 6-4 possession receiver with a Super Bowl champion's last name and a 101-catch senior season, carrying the safest floor in the class and the clearest ceiling limit in it."Pre-draft read
Big-bodied possession receiver with the build and mentality of a player whose father spent eleven years in the league as a running back. At 6-4 and 223 pounds he was a physical route runner who used his frame to shield defenders and finished catches through contact.
He was a chain mover more than a field stretcher. He worked the intermediate levels, sat down in zone windows, boxed out on slants and back shoulders, and turned short throws into first downs with strength after the catch. He also blocked in the run game with genuine effort. The limitation was juice: he ran 4.52 and did not create vertical separation. The signature was reliability, a receiver who caught 101 passes as a senior because his quarterback could throw to him covered.
Timing-based offense that lives on intermediate throws and needs a big target on third down and in the red zone.
Year 1: starting possession receiver and chain mover. Ceiling: a 100-catch WR1 in volume if not in explosiveness.
Vertical offense that needs the X receiver to run past safeties and stretch the field on play action.
He is at his best in an offense that trusts him to win covered on third and seven.
USC WR Michael Pittman Jr. 2019 Highlights
The 101-catch senior season that produced the second-round grade.
Pittboss: Michael Pittman 2019 USC Highlights
Contested catches and yards after contact against Pac-12 coverage.
Scouting Report: USC WR Michael Pittman Jr.
Pre-draft breakdown of the frame, route detail and separation questions.
Pittman arrived in the 2020 class off a senior season that had been four years in the making. He caught six passes as a freshman, 23 as a sophomore and 40 as a junior before exploding for 101 receptions, 1,275 yards and 11 touchdowns in 2019, earning unanimous first-team All-Pac-12 honors as USC's clear focal point.
The frame and the pedigree traveled. His father, Michael Pittman Sr., won a Super Bowl with Tampa Bay, and the younger Pittman played with the same physical edge on the perimeter, including real work as a blocker and as a special teams contributor. He measured 6-4 and 223 pounds at the combine and ran 4.52 with a 36.5-inch vertical, athletic enough to confirm the tape without changing the projection.
The evaluation was consistent across the industry: a safe, high-floor starter without a superstar ceiling. He would win with size, strength at the catch point and route detail rather than with speed, and he would be a chain-moving second or third option for a decade. Indianapolis, with a quarterback situation in flux and nothing settled at receiver, took him 34th overall at the top of the second round.
- 01
Contested catch strength
Plays through contact and finishes catches with defenders hanging on, using 223 pounds as a weapon.
- 02
Body positioning
Shields defenders off the ball on slants and back shoulders, making himself available even when covered.
- 03
Senior production
101 receptions for 1,275 yards and 11 touchdowns as the undisputed focal point of a Pac-12 passing offense.
- 04
Run blocking
Blocks with real effort and technique on the perimeter, adding value on early downs that most receivers do not.
- 05
Hands and ball security
Reliable in traffic with a large catch radius and very few drops across a high-volume senior year.
- 01
Vertical separation
Ran 4.52 and does not consistently uncover deep, capping the explosive-play portion of his game.
- 02
Release quickness
Takes time to build speed off the line, letting physical press corners disrupt the timing of routes.
- 03
Late development
Only one high-volume college season after three modest years in a crowded USC receiver room.
- 04
Ceiling
A high-floor complementary profile without the traits to be the receiver a defense builds its coverage plan around.
— — — positional median (p50)
- 40 yd
- 4.52sp50
- Vertical
- 36.5inp50
- Broad jump
- 121inp50
- Three-cone
- 6.96sp50
- Shuttle
- 4.14sp50
- Bench
- 13repp50
| Yr | Team | G | Rec | Yds | TD |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2016 | USC | — | 6 | 82 | 0 |
| 2017 | USC | — | 23 | 404 | 4 |
| 2018 | USC | — | 40 | 743 | 6 |
| 2019 | USC | — | 101 | 1275 | 11 |
| Career | — | — | 170 | 2504 | 21 |
Season lines combine the regular season and bowl splits published by CFBTrack and they sum exactly to the career totals of 170 receptions, 2,504 yards and 21 touchdowns. The 2017 and 2019 figures include the Cotton Bowl and Holiday Bowl respectively. Per-season game counts are reported inconsistently across sources and are left blank rather than estimated.
A dash means the figure is not published by a source we trust — never a zero we invented.
A big-framed chain mover who produces steadily as a WR1 in name regardless of the quarterback situation.
The ceiling: a physical possession receiver whose volume and hands turn into a 100-catch centerpiece.
The downside: a reliable but unspectacular complementary starter who never carries a passing game.
Everything above is the pre-draft evaluation. This section is what actually happened — updated year over year.
The safe-floor projection turned out to be a substantial NFL career. After a modest rookie year with 40 catches for 503 yards, he became Indianapolis's leading receiver for five straight seasons: 88 catches for 1,082 yards in 2021, 99 for 925 in 2022, then a career year in 2023 with 109 receptions for 1,152 yards that made him the fourth player in Colts history with 100 catches and 1,000 yards in a season, alongside Marvin Harrison, Reggie Wayne and Dallas Clark. He added 69 for 808 in 2024 and 80 for 784 with a career-high seven touchdowns in 2025. He signed with Pittsburgh for 2026 and has 96 career games, 87 starts, 488 receptions, 5,312 yards and 25 touchdowns.
What makes the production more impressive is the context. He put up those numbers with Philip Rivers, Carson Wentz, Matt Ryan, Sam Ehlinger, Gardner Minshew and Anthony Richardson throwing to him, a different starting quarterback nearly every season, and he still cleared 500 receiving yards in each of his first six years, one of only five players in franchise history to do so. The verdict is that the scouting file was accurate to the decimal. He never became a game-breaking number one, but he was exactly the dependable high-volume starter the file described, for six seasons. That is precisely what a team should get from the second pick of the second round.
Data note: from Washington