Indianapolis Colts wide receiver Michael Pittman Jr. announced his presence last season, his second in the NFL. The 2020 second-round pick out of USC burst onto the scene after a relatively quiet rookie season in which he caught 40 passes for 503 yards and one touchdown in 13 games.
In his sophomore season, Pittman cemented his status as an ascending No. 1 receiver. He played in all 17 games, catching 88 passes for 1,082 yards and six touchdowns. It was an impressive showing given the struggles that the Colts experienced at the quarterback position with Carson Wentz under center.
The Colts’ offense has yet to truly get going this season as the offensive line has underperformed, leading to Matt Ryan getting teed off on. Despite that, in Year 3, Pittman has caught 25 passes in four games for 283 yards and one touchdown. His yards per game mark this season would be a career-high at 70.8 yards per game.
The former Trojan continues to improve on the field, yet he is already drawing some high praise from people around the league. One general manager that spoke to Jordan Schultz went as far as comparing Pittman to future Hall of Famer, Larry Fitzgerald.
“He reminds me a lot of [him]. Just the way he’s able to separate at the line and also at the top of his routes. His size too…going to be one of the best for a long time.”
Fitzgerald was one of the most dominant receivers in the NFL throughout his career. Larry Legend made the Pro Bowl 11 times and three All-Pro teams, once on the first team and twice on the second, catching 1,432 passes for 17,492 yards and 121 touchdowns. One of the most impressive stats from his career is that he had more tackles in his career than drops despite being at least 103 times every season of his career except for his final one in 2020 when he was targeted 72 times in 13 games.
That is quite the praise for Michael Pittman Jr. to receive as he is in his third season in the NFL. If he can approach what Fitzgerald was able to accomplish in his career, whoever is under center for the Colts is going to be very happy having someone of his caliber to target with passes.
