Colts place franchise tag on receiver Michael Pittman Jr.

INDIANAPOLIS — The Colts on Tuesday positioned their franchise tag on vast receiver Michael Pittman Jr., who set profession highs with 109 receptions for 1,152 yards this previous season.

The Colts and Pittman’s representatives had been in negotiations on a long-term extension in current days and have been endeavoring to achieve a deal earlier than Tuesday’s deadline for gamers to be tagged, however it got here and went with no new contract.

“We love the whole lot about him, and we wish him to be a Colt,” coach Shane Steichen stated Tuesday morning.

The franchise tag, price $21.8 million for vast receivers for the 2024 season, will permit each side to proceed working towards a long-term deal. The tag significantly restricts Pittman’s means to buy himself as a free agent when the 2024 NFL league 12 months commences subsequent week.

It’s the first time the Colts have used the franchise tag since 2013, once they used it on punter Pat McAfee.

Nonexclusive franchise tags permit gamers to interact in negotiations with different groups, however the participant’s authentic crew retains the precise to match any competing provide or is entitled to 2 first-round picks if a participant joins a brand new crew.

Pittman, who has had a distinct beginning quarterback in every of his 4 seasons in Indianapolis, has been one of many extra achieved receivers in Colts historical past, with solely 5 others — Marvin Harrison, Reggie Wayne, T.Y. Hilton, Dallas Clark and Invoice Brooks — catching extra passes than Pittman’s 336.

He was, by far, the Colts’ prime goal final season at 28.2%, which ranked eleventh within the NFL. His 208 receptions since 2022 additionally ranks fifth within the NFL throughout that span.

Pittman, who turns 27 in October, missed a Week 16 recreation after he was positioned in concussion protocol following a Week 15 hit by Pittsburgh Steelers security Damontae Kazee, who was ejected after which suspended for the ultimate three video games of the season. Pittman was cleared from the protocol the subsequent Friday, however he skilled a relapse of signs at some point later after arriving in Atlanta for a recreation vs. the Falcons and went again into the protocol.

At 6-foot-4 and 223 kilos, Pittman supplies an enormous goal for his quarterback and is a prepared, and typically devastating, blocker within the working recreation. He has talked at size in regards to the impending return of 2023 first-round decide Anthony Richardson to the Colts’ lineup, and the impression the younger quarterback’s presence may have on the crew’s passing recreation.