Colts' Alec Pierce undergoes offseason surgery, sidelined for OTAs

The Indianapolis Colts will reconvene for the start of offseason programs on Apr. 21st. However, not taking part in any on-field work during this time of the offseason will be wide receiver Alec Pierce.

During GM Chris Ballard's pre-draft press conference on Monday, he mentioned that Pierce had offseason surgery on a lingering ankle injury.

"Alec Pierce also had a -- so last year he dealt with a, for a lot of the season, he kept dealing with some pain in his ankle," Ballard said. "And so, after the season, we talked about it was good enough, can we get through it again another year? Then, right before we signed him and after we signed him, I started asking questions, and he said, 'nah I can play through this again.' I knew he was hurting at times last year, so finally, after consulting with multiple doctors and him, he had a cleanup done."

The expectation is that Pierce will return during training camp and that there won't be any long-term ramifications from the injury or surgery.

"It'll be training camp -- so you won't see him during OTAs," Ballard continued. "It's a three-month recovery, but we don't expect any long-term implications here. More of it just came down to like it got to where he was having to maintenance it a lot last year and the pain and so he had to fight through that. At the end of the day, I said look, do you want to -- like you can play with this. Do you want to play with it or just knock it out? So we decided to knock it out."

The Colts signed Pierce to a four-year, $114 million deal during free agency. Pierce's contract includes $84 million in guarantees, along with $60 million fully guaranteed.

After leading the NFL in yards per catch the last two seasons, Pierce is known for the home run ability he brings to the Colts' offense. However, as we saw last season, he can provide much more than that.

During his time with the Colts, Pierce's route-running abilities have greatly improved, and with that, have come more opportunities to attack other levels of the field while doing so in a variety of ways.