INDIANAPOLIS – For a few minutes Sunday night, Michael Pittman Jr.’s weekly struggle with a nagging back that’s clearly impacting his ability to do his job was secondary.
Just over 5 minutes remained at U.S. Bank Stadium and the Indianapolis Colts, trailing the Minnesota Vikings 14-10, faced a critical fourth-and-2 at the Vikings 40-yard line. The comeback stalled when Joe Flacco was unable to hook up with Ashton Dulin.
Normally, Pittman would have been the target, but he was temporarily preoccupied on the bench.
“I actually had a little finger thing,’’ he said Wednesday.
On third-and-2, Pittman injured a finger on his left hand while diving for a Flacco pass. He immediately headed to the sideline.
“I may have been a little dazed,’’ he said. “I came out because I had to get my hand fixed.’’
It was a quick fix. Pittman returned for the Colts’ final drive.
“Yeah, it was like a little dislocation,’’ he explained. “That’s the first time it’s happened to me, so I didn’t really know.’’
The severity of the injury stared Pittman in the face.
“(The finger) was like a right angle to my pinky,’’ he said with a slight grin. “I knew it wasn’t right so I was like, ‘Hey, can you fix this?’ And (the medical staff) popped it back in for me.’’
Just like that, two fingers were taped together and Pittman went about his business.
Maybe you should tell the docs to work a similar quick fix with your back.
“Yeah, right,’’ Pittman said. “They’ve got to have something, right?’’
All joking aside, the back remains an issue that’s keeping Pittman from adequately handling his role as the Colts’ unquestioned go-to receiver. He’s coming off a career season – 109 catches, 1,152 yards, four touchdowns – and was rewarded in the offseason with a three-year, $70 million extension that included $42 million in guarantees.
The injury first surfaced after the week 5 loss at Jacksonville. A source confirmed the team expected Pittman to miss a game or two, and general manager Chris Ballard, coach Shane Steichen and the medical staff discussed whether he would be better served with a four-week stint on injured reserve. That would have given Pittman time to properly rehab.
Instead, everyone is taking a week-to-week approach.
“We’ll keep monitoring week-to-week with him,’’ Steichen said. “He knows his body better than anyone.
“He’s battling through it. Man, he’s battling through it. Shown the toughness. Wants to be out there with his teammates.’’
Pittman has been available every game and handled his usual 86-90% of the offensive snaps. His 75.9% against the Vikings was a season low and lowest since a 53.8% workload in the Colts’ run-heavy 27-17 win over New England in week 14 of 2021 (excluding week 15 last season against Pittsburgh when he was forced from the game in the second quarter with a concussion).
“He’s one of the toughest guys I’ve been around,’’ Steichen said.
Pittman gets treatment every day – “A lot of rehab,’’ he said – and even that changes depending on how he’s feeling.
“Some days are really good and some days you wake up and you’re like, ‘Oh, here it goes,’’’ Pittman said.
He’s been practicing just once a week to lessen the workload on his back, although leading up the Vikings game Pittman was a full-go on Thursday and limited on Friday. He didn’t practice Wednesday as the Colts amped up preparations for Sunday’s meeting with Buffalo at Lucas Oil Stadium.
What keeps him going?
Pittman shrugged.
“At this point, everybody is fighting through some type of thing,’’ he said. “It’s not like I’m doing anything special. We’re just taking it week-to-week and just seeing where it goes.’’
Does the injury limit what he can do on the field?
Again, a shrug.
“I’m not going to make excuses,’’ Pittman said. “If I’m out there, I’m out there.’’
He was there in week 5 in Nashville against the Tennessee Titans when the Colts needed him. Pittman’s 10-yard touchdown catch from Flacco with 7:27 remaining gave the Colts a 20-17 lead and his 16-yard reception just ahead of the 2-minute warning helped them drain most of the time off the clock to secure the victory.
For the first time in his five-year career, teammates voted Pittman a team captain. He’s embraced the role and is doing everything within his power to be available on Sundays.
But in this instance, the numbers are making it clear Pittman hasn’t been the player the Colts need him to be.
Consider he:
- Has one reception in back-to-back games for the first time in his career.
- Is off to his least productive nine-game start to a season: 30 receptions and 366 yards.
- Is in the midst of the least productive five-game stretch of his career. Since a six-catch, 113-yard outing against the Steelers, he has 13 catches for 165 yards on 28 targets (46.4% catch rate).
- Has caught just 52.6% of the passes directed at him (57). That’s a career low by a wide margin. The catch percentages in his first four seasons: 65.6 as a rookie (40 of 61) followed by 68.2 (88 of 129), 70.2 (99 of 141) and 69.9 109 of 156).
Pittman paused when asked about his lack of productivity.
“Well, obviously I’d like to be more productive out there,’’ he said. “It’s definitely frustrating because I feel I need to be better and I’m trying to find ways to do that whether it’s extra film work, rehab. Just finding ways around it and find the best system.’’
The offense has averaged an unacceptable 270.8 yards per game over the last four games and is coming off a season-low 227 yards against the Vikings. It failed to score a touchdown for the first time since Steichen’s arrival in 2023.
Pittman had a suggestion on how to help kick-start the offense.
“I think we’ve got to take some of our short game and do that more because we are in a ‘shot’ mentality,’’ he said of Steichen’s desire for explosive plays. “We just need to be more consistent and I think we’re going to do that this week.’’
You can follow Mike Chappell on Twitter at @mchappell51.