Alec
Pierce.
Alec
Pierce.
Cincinnati· 6'3"· 211 lb· 4.41s 40
"A basketball body turned Playoff-team X receiver: Pierce sells one thing — the ball in the air over the top — and does it well enough that the narrow route tree becomes a plan instead of a flaw."Pre-draft read
Perimeter X receiver who lined up outside and won above the rim. Pierce releases with long, unhurried strides rather than quick feet, then uses a wide catch radius and elite leaping ability to take contested throws away from defenders at the high point. His hands are strong and late, and he tracks back-shoulder and sideline balls without losing his frame.
The vertical stem is the separator: he threatens the top of a coverage from a standing start and flattens post and corner routes without gearing down. The short and intermediate tree is thinner — rounded breaks, little creativity against off coverage — so his value is tied to shot plays and jump balls. He blocks willingly on the edge, walling defenders off with length.
Vertical play-action offense that isolates an X receiver on the backside and asks for shot plays and contested wins rather than a full route tree.
Year 1: field-stretching X and red-zone target on a defined route menu. Ceiling: 1,000-yard vertical threat whose average per catch bends coverage for everyone else.
A quick-game, timing-based offense that lives on slants, option routes and yards after catch, where his rounded breaks make him a low-volume passenger.
His value is scheme-dependent in the best sense: the right play-caller turns a narrow skill set into a defining one.
Alec Pierce 2021 Senior Season Highlights | Cincinnati Bearcats WR
Full senior-season reel: vertical stems, sideline back-shoulder wins and contested catches on the boundary.
Alec Pierce Cincinnati Bearcats College Career Highlights
Career compilation showing the four-year development arc from special teamer to Playoff-team X receiver.
Cincinnati WR Alec Pierce 2021 Highlights
Game-by-game cutups against American and Playoff competition, heavy on high-point and red-zone reps.
Pierce arrived at Cincinnati as a basketball-bodied project and left as the outside receiver on a College Football Playoff team, which is most of the evaluation in one sentence: developmental curve, big frame, ball skills that travel. He was the field-stretcher on an offense built around efficiency, not volume, and he made his living on throws that only a taller player completes.
The production shape is honest rather than gaudy — 106 catches across four seasons, but 17.5 yards per reception for a career and eight touchdowns as a senior. The COVID-shortened 2020 year cost him a season of reps, and he still finished as the Bearcats' most trusted target in the biggest games of the program's history. The flag was route-tree width: teams saw a vertical and back-shoulder specialist, not a receiver who separated underneath.
Board consensus put him in the late-second to third-round range, and the Combine sharpened it — a 4.41 forty and a 40.5-inch vertical at 6-foot-3 turned a Group of Five possession receiver into a measured deep threat. Indianapolis took him at 53 as the field-side X the offense lacked, betting the traits would grow the route tree later.
- 01
Above-the-rim ball skills
Plays the football like a power forward, tracking it over his shoulder and winning at the high point against tight coverage without needing separation to produce.
- 02
Vertical speed at size
A 4.41 forty at 6-foot-3 and 211 pounds gives him the long speed to run past corners who play his frame instead of his release, threatening the top of coverage.
- 03
Explosive leaping base
A 40.5-inch vertical and 129-inch broad jump show up on tape as jump-ball wins on the sideline and in the red zone, where he simply out-heights the coverage.
- 04
Body control on the boundary
Adjusts to back-shoulder and low throws in a phone booth of space, getting feet down inbounds on sideline targets that most tall receivers turn into incompletions.
- 05
Perimeter run blocking
Willing and physical on the edge, using length to wall off defensive backs and sustain long enough to matter in the outside run game, which keeps him on the field.
- 01
Narrow route tree
Won almost entirely on vertical stems, back-shoulder throws and hitches; the intermediate and option game barely appeared on his college tape, capping early volume.
- 02
Rounded breaks
Builds speed in long strides and needs extra steps to sink his hips, so he decelerates into cuts and struggles to create quick separation against physical off coverage.
- 03
Modest change of direction
A 7.13 three-cone and 4.28 shuttle back up the tape: he is a straight-line athlete first, which limits his value on anything demanding sudden lateral movement.
- 04
Thin production floor
Just 106 career catches with only one 800-yard season, and the level of competition in the American raised fair questions about how the tape would translate.
— — — positional median (p50)
- 40 yd
- 4.41sp50
- Vertical
- 40.5inp50
- Broad jump
- 129inp50
- Three-cone
- 7.13sp50
- Shuttle
- 4.28sp50
- Bench
- —rep
| Yr | Team | G | Rec | Yds | TD |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2018 | Cincinnati | 5 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 2019 | Cincinnati | 14 | 37 | 652 | 2 |
| 2020 | Cincinnati | 6 | 17 | 315 | 3 |
| 2021 | Cincinnati | 14 | 52 | 884 | 8 |
| Career | — | 39 | 106 | 1851 | 13 |
cfbstats verified 2020 (6 G, 17-315-3) and 2021 (14 G, 52-884-8); 2018 and 2019 from ESPN/StatMuse season tables. Season sums reconcile with the 39-game, 106-1,851-13 career line. 2018 receiving zeros are verified (one target, no catches), not placeholders.
A dash means the figure is not published by a source we trust — never a zero we invented.
Low-volume, high-average deep threat whose production swings with how often the offense takes shots.
The ceiling is a big-bodied boundary receiver who wins contested throws every week and turns a limited tree into 1,000 yards.
The floor is a straight-line athlete who never widens his route tree and drifts into a rotational role.
Everything above is the pre-draft evaluation. This section is what actually happened — updated year over year.
Alec Pierce has played his entire career with the Indianapolis Colts, serving as a starting wide receiver. He has contributed as a deep threat and red-zone target.
Indianapolis played him as the boundary X from the first month of his rookie season, and the early returns matched the flag rather than the traits: 41 catches for 593 yards in 2022 in an offense that changed quarterbacks repeatedly, then a quieter 32-for-514 second season where he was the third option and the deep shots came in bursts. The role clarified in 2024, when the Colts stopped asking him to be a volume target and leaned into what he actually is — 37 receptions for 824 yards, a 22.3-yard average that led the league among qualified receivers, and seven touchdowns. In 2025 he broke through in full, catching 47 balls for 1,003 yards and six scores in fifteen games while still averaging better than 21 yards a catch.
The evaluation was right about the player and slightly wrong about the ceiling. Everyone saw the contested-catch and vertical profile; the skeptics were correct that the underneath tree never widened much. What they underrated was how valuable a receiver who wins exclusively over the top can be when a team accepts the role instead of fighting it. Pierce is not a possession No. 1, but he turned a narrow skill set into a 1,000-yard season, which makes pick 53 a clear hit.
Data note: from Las Vegas via Green Bay and Minnesota