Alec Pierce did not practice on Thursday with a shoulder issue. What do we know about Pierce’s injury? Should fantasy football managers hoping for a hail mary from the Indianapolis Colts WR be looking elsewhere this week?
Will Alec Pierce Be Active in Week 7?
We never want to see any player on the injury report. But it’s especially problematic when the injured player wasn’t hurt the previous day.
No Alec Pierce at practice during the media shooting period. He wasn’t on the iniury report yesterday. #Colts
— Brett Bensley (@brettbensley) October 17, 2024
It’s a strange sequence for Pierce because if he got hurt at practice on Wednesday, he would have been listed as limited (unless he happened to suffer the injury on the very last play of practice). Pierce was not listed on Wednesday’s report at all.
If Pierce got hurt at Thursday’s practice, he would have been listed as limited. Instead, he did not participate entirely. That makes this a difficult one to figure out.
Without any insight from Colts coaches, we have no choice but to wait and see what Friday’s practice report says.
Historically, going from not listed to a DNP does not bode well. It would actually be better for Pierce’s chances of playing if he was on the practice report with the issue Wednesday, even if he still didn’t practice on Thursday.
Hopefully, Pierce can return to at least a limited session on Friday, which would put him on track to play.
Fantasy Options To Consider If Pierce Is Out This Week
This is a weird one because fantasy managers aren’t exactly trying to replace Pierce. He’s only rostered in 24% of Yahoo leagues and started in even fewer. Outside of best ball formats or super deep leagues with rosters overcome with injuries and byes, fantasy managers shouldn’t need to be utilizing Pierce.
Regardless of Pierce’s status, most of the wide receivers rostered in the 20-50% range on Yahoo are better options than the Colts’ outside burner. Although Pierce has posted three games of WR1 production on the season, he’s purely a bet on a long touchdown.
The past three weeks perfectly illustrate Pierce’s value. He caught one pass for nine yards. Then, he caught three passes for 134 yards and a touchdown. Then, he didn’t catch a pass. This is Alec Pierce.
If Pierce can’t go, that would presumably elevate rookie Adonai Mitchell to the outside burner role. After playing 60% of the snaps in each of the Colts’ first two games, Mitchell hasn’t so much as hit 30% in their past four, which coincided with Josh Downs’ return.
Anthony Richardson is set to return this week. Even Joe Flacco could only sustain the fantasy values of Michael Pittman Jr. and Downs. Richardson makes both of them suspect starts. There’s no real hope for anyone else. Mitchell is far off the fantasy radar.
Some other players rostered in fewer than 50% of Yahoo leagues that you can look at are Ray-Ray McCloud, JuJu Smith-Schuster, Romeo Doubs, and Rashod Bateman.
McCloud remains the Atlanta Falcons’ primary slot receiver. The Seahawks are a pass-funnel defense that game could be high scoring, putting him firmly in play.
Smith-Schuster has taken over the Rashee Rice role in the Kansas City Chiefs’ offense. He’s not going to be Rice, but he had a 100-yard game two weeks ago (the Chiefs were on bye last week).
Doubs returned after a one-game absence last week to catch two touchdowns. The volume won’t be there, but Jordan Love is an MVP candidate, and Doubs can spike any given Sunday.
Bateman has played quite well the past two weeks, hitting double-digit fantasy points in both. In a potential shootout against a Bucs pass-funnel defense, you could do worse than Bateman in a pinch.