Colts WR Michael Pittman Jr. racked up 113 yards on 6 receptions in Sunday's win over the Steelers. That more than doubles his season receiving yardage after Pittman totaled just 88 yards through the first three games. It would be easy to attribute the breakthrough to QB Anthony Richardson leaving early with a hip injury. But Pittman made catches of 32 and 28 yards among Richardson's mere four pass attempts before leaving the game. That marked 53% of Pittman's yardage for the game.
According to Next Gen Stats, 7 of Pittman's 9 targets went beyond the sticks (for potential first-down conversions). Pittman caught five of those targets.
Especially when you factor in that the Steelers arrived as the No. 4 defense in pass DVOA so far this season, this seems like a good signal for the Colts' passing game going forward.
We, of course, got robbed of seeing whether Richardson could continue his passing success over a full game. And he'll need to do that to prove we can be optimistic about the Colts passing game.
Fortunately for Indy, the next three games include matchups with the Jaguars and Dolphins, who entered Sunday ranked 30th and 28th in pass DVOA, respecitvely. In between sits a non-scary Titans defense that's dealing with multiple injuries at the moment.
Overall, Pittman looks like a hold as we watch this situation develop.
We'll watch the status of Richardson and RB Jonathan Taylor (ankle) this week. That combo of injuries could increase Colts passing volume for a Week 5 clash with Jacksonville.
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