Film Room: Alec Pierce Appears Primed and Ready for Regular Season
The Indianapolis Colts selected wide receiver Alec Pierce with the 53rd overall pick in the 2022 NFL Draft. While he is far from a finished product, the Colts have to be happy with what they've seen so far from the rookie.
The Colts are, surprisingly, fast-tracking Pierce's development in training camp, going as far as matching him up with former Defensive Player of the Year Stephon Gilmore every day in practice. The goal appears to be getting Pierce acclimated as fast as possible for a starting role with the team.
With the focus squarely being on this young receiver this offseason, I decided to jump into the film room to break down exactly how Pierce has looked in the preseason so far. I enlisted the help of my good friend Jonathan Hagler (former Jacksonville State defensive back and Owner of the N.E.T Center) for this breakdown.
Everything that you see written in bold will be from Hag's analysis of what he is seeing on each individual rep.
Clip 1 vs Kaiir Elam
The Colts have made the focus of their training for Alec Pierce this offseason very clear; they want to see him improve at beating press coverage. Pierce comes to the Colts with a few tricks in his press-beater toolbox, but he is still a work in progress. There will be some ugly reps early on, especially against a battle-tested corner like Kaiir Elam.
Elam, like Pierce, is also a rookie but his bread and butter in college was press coverage. He lives for these moments, and he got the better of Pierce on this particular third down play.
Right off the bat, you can see that (Pierce) let's Elam get his hands on him. Which is.. not ideal. Elam is sitting on this route, so you have to get him to move off of his spot. I don't think he did enough to get Elam off of that spot on the inside.
Hag is spot-on with his analysis here. Kaiir Elam is shading the inside shoulder when Pierce is supposed to be running an in-breaking route. In order to create the space needed to work back to the inside, Pierce needs to do a better job of selling the vertical route. He gives a slight jab out there, but he needs to do a better job of being a salesman on these type of routes/plays.
He's not committing to (the vertical route). It is more important to commit to it and create that separation than anything else. He even gets this ball a little late, so if he sells vertical before breaking back in, he might catch this ball right on the numbers with room to move.
This rep may have been a loss for the young receiver, but he was able to get his redemption on Elam a bit later on in the game.
Clip 2 vs Kaiir Elam
The most important thing that coaches want to see from a young receiver in the preseason is growth. It is okay to lose a rep, but be sure to learn from it and come back even stronger on the next one. That is exactly what Pierce does here in his next press rep against Kaiir Elam.
He moved him off of the spot. Whatever you have to do to move your guy off of the spot, you do it in press. The second you move a DB off of the spot, he panics. When a guy that can run, like Pierce, starts to get vertical on you, you have to respect that. Just a great rep by Pierce to move his guy off of the spot and win on the comeback.
One thing that I want to piggyback on with what Hag said is how defensive backs need to respect Pierce's speed. This situation features Pierce one on one on the backside of a 3X1 formation with a corner. The second Pierce gets that corner to worry about his deep speed, he has already won the rep.
This is the perfect bounce-back rep that you want to see from a young receiver. He learned from his last loss against Elam and came back with a plan to move the savvy rookie corner off of his spot. Once he did that, the rep was essentially over.
Also, this is just a really good job of using the hands by Pierce on this rep. Elam tries to get a hand in there, but Pierce keeps his hands active and swipes it away. There is a lot of good to his game and you can see how much he is growing early on.
Clip 3 vs Christian Benford
On the other side of the field, Pierce had a little bit more success against the other Bills' rookie corner Christian Benford. Benford isn't as seasoned as Kaiir Elam and it did show a little bit in this one. This first clip showcases Pierce using his go-to rocker step to create separation in the red zone.
I like to equate (the battle in press coverage) to boxing. If my signature move is my jab or my hook or my uppercut, I'm going to go to that move when the game is on the line. Everybody has that one move that they go to in their bag.
With Pierce, they call it a rocker step because it rocks the DB to sleep. As a DB, the worst thing that you can do is get your eyes up or lose patience. If the DB doesn't get hands on early and watches the receiver rock in, they kinda lose focus a little bit. This is something that Pierce has done since college. It is certainly his move.
Alec Pierce is so effective on these rocker steps that he is a tough match-up for a defensive back if they don't disrupt him at the line. If he is given a free release at the line of scrimmage, he is typically too fluid and quick for corners to quickly react to.
Clip 4 vs Christian Benford
This next rep is against Benford yet again, but this time, Benford bails out of press at the line of scrimmage. Pierce's savvy as a receiver is on full display for this route, as he attacks the blind spot of the DB in order to win on the comeback route.
That is just a smart play by him. A lot of receivers will pause when they see a corner bail out of press-man. With Pierce, he starts to attack once he sees the corner bail out. He attacks that blind spot and he knows where he needs to get to on this route. This is a very, very savvy play by him.
Watching a play like this is basically like seeing the gears turning in a young player's head. This is smart play by a rookie receiver that really isn't used to seeing too much press coverage at this point in his career. The mental side of the game is starting to click for him and plays like this will become the norm once he fully acclimates to the NFL game.
Clip 5 vs Jeff Okudah
The final clip that we broke down for this piece came against the Lions this past weekend. Former top pick Jeff Okudah is the corner in coverage, and Pierce sets up this route beautifully. It may have been a run call on the field, but Pierce still used this play to get some extra press work in.
He moves really well for a guy his size. These corners aren't expecting that suddenness. This play right here is separation. For all the scouting people that talk about separation, this is what we are talking about. Can you separate with your feet? Can you separate in the route? Pierce can separate.
Going back to the first clip that Pierce lost against Kaiir Elam, this is an example of him doing everything right in a similar situation. He moves the corner where he wants him to go and then gets to his desired landmark down the field.
Okudah is shading outside and Pierce knows that he wants to attack out there. He has to do whatever he can to move Okudah off of the spot. He gets the corner moved, and then he works back to where he wanted to get to originally. I LIKE IT. That is what you have to do in order to win. It is not easy to get open in the NFL. That is legit right there. The more I see this play, the more I could see Pierce having a helluva year in Indy.
Final Thoughts
I was extremely high on Alec Pierce in the pre-darft process, so much so that I labeled him as the perfect Chris Ballard wide receiver. Even for me, Pierce appears to be much further along than I anticipated at this point.
He still needs to work on some things, specifically fighting through contact at the line of scrimmage, but he has looked pretty legit this preseason. If he can continue to build upon what we are already seeing this early on, he could be the perfect compliment to Michael Pittman Jr for the near (and distant) future.
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