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The Indianapolis Colts are placing wide receiver Alec Pierce on injured reserve with a left heel injury, head coach Shane Steichen confirmed Wednesday.
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Pierce will miss a minimum of four games after aggravating the injury during Sunday night’s 33-30 overtime loss to the Kansas City Chiefs. He is not eligible to return until the Week 7 game at Minnesota on Oct. 25.
Multiple outlets have reported that the Colts hope to avoid another surgery on the same foot that was surgically repaired in March.
Streichen defended the team’s management of Pierce’s injury.
“We went through that rebab process, he hit all his landmarks, hit all his benchmarks, and then obviously we eased him back into practice,” Steichen said. “The trainers and doctors felt good about it, (Pierce) felt good about it to go play, we limited him in practice working those first two weeks, he had limited reps Week 1.
“Injuries happen. You never want to see it happen, but we would have never put him on the field if we didn’t feel good about it and he didn’t feel good about it.”
Signed to a four-year, $114 million contract extension on March 9, Pierce had one reception for 11 yards on Sunday. He caught four passes for 61 yards in the Week 1 loss to the Baltimore Ravens.
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Pierce, 26, led the NFL in yards per reception in each of the past two seasons. He averaged 22.3 yards in 2024 and 21.3 last season when he had the first 1,000-yard season of his career.
A second-round pick by Indianapolis in 2022, Pierce has 162 receptions for 3,006 yards and 17 touchdowns through 66 career games (56 starts).
The Colts (0-2) signed veteran wide receiver Darius Slayton to the practice squad on Tuesday. He played with Colts quarterback Daniel Jones with the New York Giants from 2019-24 and could potentially be activated for Sunday’s game against the visiting Houston Texans (0-2).
Indianapolis also signed wide receiver Eli Pancol to the practice squad on Wednesday. He participated in training camp with the Colts before being released in final roster cuts.
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–Field Level Media
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This story was originally published September 23, 2026 at 9:42 AM.