One of the top pending free agents this offseason, Alec Pierce, has made a new comment on his status that will be music to the ears of the Las Vegas Raiders, Pittsburgh Steelers and Buffalo Bills.
The Indianapolis Colts pending free agent was a guest on "Up & Adams" with Kay Adams and made it clear that he is almost certainly going to test the open market.
"I love Indy," Pierce said. "But at this point, I've kind of earned the right to explore free agency. See what's out there."
Of course, the Colts were hoping to either use the franchise tag on Pierce or extend him before free agency, but the former option was ripped out from their hands after Indy failed to get a contract extension done with Daniel Jones, who had the rarely utilized transition tag slapped on him on Tuesday.
While the Colts and Pierce will continue to negotiate up until March 11, when Pierce is officially a free agent, his latest comment strongly hints that Indy's attempts to avoid seeing Pierce hit the open market are futile.
Three teams that could make a play for Pierce are the Raiders, Bills and Steelers.
Buffalo has badly struck out on both Keon Coleman and Joshua Palmer, leaving Khalil Shakir and not much else in the wide receivers room.
The Steelers have been searching for a good No. 2 receiver for a few years now, and that need hasn't changed in 2026.
The Raiders have the most dire situation, not only because their wide receivers room is bare, but also because the team is going to draft Fernando Mendoza with the No. 1 overall pick in April.
But those three teams are going to have a ton of competition for Pierce, who is widely viewed as the most coveted receiver on the open market.
Pierce, 25, is coming off his first 1,000-yard season and has established himself as one of the best big-play wideouts in the NFL.
Because of his robust market, the Bills might have a tough time paying what Pierce will command given their financial restrictions.
Meanwhile, the Raiders have the second-most cap space in the NFL and can pay whatever he wants, and the Steelers are in solid shape with $40.1 million in cap space.
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