An awful lot went wrong for Pittman in 2024, including but not limited to Anthony Richardson's inability to complete passes. Josh Downs' emergence was also a small factor, with the second-year slot man drawing just four fewer targets than Pittman in two fewer games, and then there was the matter of playing through a back injury from Week 5 onward. There was even discussion of placing Pittman on IR or shutting him down, yet he ended up closing out the season with 181 yards in Weeks 17-18 while catching passes from Joe Flacco. Believed to have avoided offseason surgery, Pittman will again be part of a WR room that has three other Day 2 picks (he was a second-rounder in 2020), joined by Downs, Alec Pierce and Adonai Mitchell. The last two may not matter much for Pittman's volume, but Downs almost certainly does, considering both tend to thrive in short/intermediate areas. There were plenty of targets for both when Flacco was under center last year... and not enough targets for either when Richardson got the nod. Richardson won't ever be a favorable QB for possession-receiver production even if he improves drastically, which means the best-case scenario for Pittman's fantasy value would probably be another lost season for the Colts in general, with Daniel Jones throwing a bunch of short passes for a subpar team the way Flacco did last year.
