An awful lot went wrong for Michael Pittman Jr. in 2024, beginning with Anthony Richardson’s persistent struggles to complete passes consistently. Josh Downs’ emergence also played a major role in shaping the offensive landscape, with the second-year slot receiver commanding nearly as many targets as Pittman despite missing two more games than his veteran teammate. Compounding these challenges was a lingering back injury that Pittman played through from Week 5 onward. The situation became severe enough that internal discussions considered placing Pittman on injured reserve or shutting him down completely for the remainder of the campaign. Instead, he persevered, closing out the year with a strong 181-receiving-yard performance over Weeks 17 and 18 while catching passes from veteran backup Joe Flacco.
Believed to have avoided the need for offseason surgery, Pittman enters another campaign as part of an Indianapolis wide receiver room that features three other Day 2 draft picks. Drafted in the second round himself back in 2020, Pittman is joined by fellow wideouts Downs, Alec Pierce, and Adonai Mitchell. While Pierce and Mitchell project as deeper threats who may not directly cannibalize Pittman’s core volume, Downs certainly poses a challenge for possession-style work. Furthermore, the arrival of rookie tight end Tyler Warren introduces a third viable candidate for short and intermediate targets. During Flacco’s stint under center last year, both Downs and Pittman found plenty of opportunities, but those short-to-intermediate options dried up whenever Richardson regained the starting nod. Richardson’s playing style suggests he will never be an ideal quarterback for a traditional possession receiver, even if he achieves a drastic developmental leap. Consequently, the best-case scenario for Pittman’s fantasy and real-world production might ironically hinge on another turbulent year for the Colts’ offense, where a reliable short-passing distributor like Daniel Jones manages the game in a manner similar to Flacco’s late-season relief work.
Ever since entering the NFL as a 2020 second-round pick out of USC, Pittman has steadily improved his totals for targets and receptions with each passing season. He has established himself as one of the league’s most reliable possession targets despite navigating a revolving door of subpar quarterback play. The highest-quality quarterbacking Pittman experienced as a starter was during the final year of Philip Rivers’ career, though that season served as a learning curve where the rookie was buried as the number three receiver behind veteran T.Y. Hilton and Zach Pascal. While Pittman has functioned as the definitive number one wideout in Indianapolis ever since, he has been continuously saddled with transient signal-callers, ranging from Carson Wentz and a brutal final season from Matt Ryan to Gardner Minshew last year. While Anthony Richardson could theoretically evolve into a vastly superior player following an injury-shortened rookie year, an offensive explosion through the air is not guaranteed for Pittman. Instead, an offense anchored by Richardson and star running back Jonathan Taylor will likely lean heavily on the ground game, forcing Pittman to trade sheer volume for enhanced efficiency. Standing 6-4 and weighing 223 pounds with 4.52 speed, Pittman is exceptionally well-suited for his familiar possession role, while rookie second-round pick Adonai Mitchell operates as the designated field-stretcher. Josh Downs remains the primary wild card in the room, threatening to siphon away the dominant share of short targets that Pittman has historically relied upon.
The path to establishing himself as an elite weapon has seen its share of fluctuations. Pittman notably took a step backward rather than forward during the 2022 season, a trajectory many analysts and fans did not anticipate. His production dipped from 1,082 receiving yards the previous year to just 925 yards, despite drawing 12 more targets across one fewer game played. The raw volume remained somewhat promising, but a significant portion of the offensive inefficiency was completely out of his control within an Indianapolis scheme utterly derailed by Matt Ryan’s steep athletic decline and Jonathan Taylor’s persistent injury woes. The subsequent addition of free agent Gardner Minshew represented a clear upgrade over the 2022 iteration of Ryan, and the roster lacked substantial target competition to challenge Pittman’s supremacy. Although Pittman’s 4.52 speed means he was never projected to be a dangerous vertical deep threat, he proved his competence as an intermediate target in 2021 by registering a 9.8 average depth of target (aDOT), before that metric plummeted closer to tight-end territory at 6.9 in 2022. The hiring of head coach Shane Steichen was expected to inject creativity into the passing game, mirroring his fantastic work in Philadelphia the prior year, though the looming presence of raw rookie Anthony Richardson as the 14th overall draft pick always carried the threat of a transitional rebuilding phase.
Long before these recent offensive iterations, Pittman enjoyed his milestone first 1,000-yard campaign in 2021, appearing in all 17 games and hauling in more than twice as many passes as any other Colt on the roster. The 2020 second-rounder had already flashed significant promise as a rookie, highlighted by a strong 101-total-yard playoff performance in a postseason loss to the Buffalo Bills, though he flew under the radar in most second-year breakout lists. He quickly dispelled any doubts by establishing himself as Option A within an otherwise sluggish passing attack, securing six or more receptions in four of Indianapolis’ first five matchups. Through the first eight weeks of the 2021 season, Pittman averaged 74.3 yards and 0.5 touchdowns on 8.1 targets per game when thrown to by Carson Wentz, who ultimately finished the year ranked 20th in yards per attempt (6.9) and 27th in completion percentage (62.4). The heavy workload eventually caught up to the offense, causing Pittman’s numbers to taper off to 4.8 catches for 54.2 yards and 0.2 touchdowns on 7.1 targets across the final nine contests. The silver lining was that his overarching target share remained remarkably steady, with the late-season dip in production directly attributable to Wentz attempting a mere 27.3 passes per game down the stretch. Even with a heavy reliance on Jonathan Taylor and a formidable offensive line, the Colts opted to pivot away from Wentz, bringing in Matt Ryan with the expectation that veteran stability would maximize their primary weapons, leaving Pittman as the undisputed favorite to lead the team in targets after the front office bypassed elite wide receiver prospects in free agency to select second-rounder Alec Pierce.
Tracing back to his rookie campaign, Pittman faced early adversity when the 34th overall pick of the 2020 draft missed three games following emergency surgery for compartment syndrome. Once healthy, he immediately showed explosive flashes, even with Philip Rivers anchoring an offense known for a conservative passing approach. Pittman concluded his debut season averaging 8.2 yards per target, recording two explosive receptions of 40 yards or more, and securing his first career 100-yard game in a Week 10 victory over the Tennessee Titans. He carried that momentum into the wild-card loss against Buffalo, posting a five-catch, 90-yard receiving line alongside an 11-yard rushing attempt. At 6-4 and 223 pounds, Pittman possessed an imposing frame that allowed him to move fluidly for his size, drawing frequent comparisons to a slightly smaller Mike Evans. At the time, the Colts’ wide receiver corps was wide open, featuring a veteran T.Y. Hilton on the back end of his career, the physically gifted but perpetually hobbled Parris Campbell, and the steady, unspectacular Zach Pascal. While uncertainty surrounded who would ultimately emerge as the primary option, Pittman rapidly positioned himself as the most viable long-term answer, particularly with Hilton beginning that season on injured reserve following neck surgery.
The foundational traits that made Pittman a premier draft choice were evident long before his professional arrival. When the Colts spent the 34th overall selection on him, the franchise already possessed a baseline of depth featuring T.Y. Hilton, Zach Pascal, and Parris Campbell, yet the front office prioritized Pittman’s unique physical profile. Standing 6-4 and 223 pounds, he brought rare size to the perimeter coupled with a deceptive 4.52 speed in the 40-yard dash, matching the physical specifications of Tampa Bay’s Mike Evans. Evaluators praised his polished route-running capabilities and exceptional ball skills, which allowed him to consistently win contested jump balls over smaller, overmatched defensive backs. Although his collegiate production at USC was relatively quiet until a breakout senior year where he erupted for 1,275 yards and 11 touchdowns across 13 games, his transition to the professional ranks proved that his skill set could translate. Tasked initially with carving out a role alongside established veterans, Pittman’s physical traits and relentless work ethic ensured he would remain a central figure in Indianapolis’ offensive plans for years to come.
