Colts take WR Alec Pierce with 53rd pick in NFL draft

INDIANAPOLIS (AP) — Alec Pierce woke up Friday morning, anticipating a phone call coming from the Indianapolis Colts. His barber had something to say about it, too.

After silently sitting through the wild first-round trading flurry Thursday night, watching college teammate Desmond Ridder slide into the second day of draft weekend and hearing the Colts had traded back 11 spots, it finally happened.

Colts general manager Chris Ballard picked the newly-trimmed receiver from Cincinnati with the 53rd overall pick Friday night.

“I had a gut-feeling with the Colts and then I had someone predict I was going to the Colts. It’s a place I really wanted to go,” Pierce said before divulging his source. “My barber said he really wanted me to stay in Cincinnati so he could keep cutting my hair but that God told him I was going to the Colts.”

The 6-foot-3, 211-pound Pierce provides a complementary presence to Michael Pittman Jr., who had his first 1,000-yard season last year. They’ll be lining up with NFL rushing champ Jonathan Taylor and all three will be catching passes from Matt Ryan, the league’s 2016 MVP and Indy’s sixth opening-day starter in six years.

And he’ll be working with new receivers coach Reggie Wayne, one of the greatest pass-catchers in team history.

“He (Ryan) is a guy I grew up watching a lot because I loved watching Julio Jones,” Pierce said. “So I’m really happy to get a chance to work with him.”

Getting Pierce to Indy wasn’t easy. The Colts were without a first-round pick because of last year’s trade to acquire Carson Wentz and Ballard avoided the temptation to get back in Thursday. Then he waited through nine more picks Friday before swapping second-rounders with Minnesota to pick up an extra-third round pick. The Vikings also got Indy’s fourth-round pick while Minnesota gave up a sixth-rounder.

And yet, Ballard still managed to fill the first of two glaring holes by getting Pierce.

“You look at them last year and they we’re really a really good team that fell just short of the playoffs,” Pierce said. “But they’ve got all the pieces to win a championship.”

Ballard is still working on that roster. He added tight end Jelani Woods of Virginia with the first of two third-round picks then added Central Michigan tackle Bernhard Raimann with the 77th overall pick. Raimann could be the long-term answer Indy has been searching for since Anthony Castonzo retired after the 2020 season.

Indy has five more selections Saturday, but it has already been a busy offseason.

The Colts dealt Wentz to Washington and sent a third-round pick to Atlanta for Ryan. Ballard also added defensive end Yannick Ngakoue in a trade with Las Vegas and signed cornerback Stephon Gilmore, the NFL’s 2019 Defensive Player of the Year, in free agency.

So after presumably finding stability at quarterback, upgrading the pass rush and improving the secondary, Ballard went to work on the receiving corps and plucked the 6-foot-3, 211-pound Pierce, who caught 106 passes for 1,851 yards and 13 touchdowns with Cincinnati.

“I’m a guy you can put on the boundary who can beat one-on-one coverage with speed and size vertically,” Pierce said. “I can make them put a safety over the top and help open up the running game, too.”

And he’ll be just a two-hour drive away from getting haircuts from his top adviser, too.

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