MPJ Wants Bigger Role in Offense

[pgt_rob]

I think he’s frustrated from that terrible loss. He was targeted 5 times which is probably about average but scored a 75 yard run in touchdown. I guess they could draw up more plays specifically for him but he’s just got to be open for them. That’s the tough part which ultimately decides how many catches he’ll have. Not to mention we have a new QB every time you turn around so not very fun.

[jvan1973]

1 hour ago, Mitch Connors said:

A bit selective especially when drawing a comparison...

Pittman 2 catches on 5 targets for 83 yards. 75 yard TD pass

Downs 5 catches on 6 targets for 125 yards. 59 yard TD pass

 

Pittman may have done something with his 2 catches, but as I said, Down's did more with his opportunities than Pittman.

Targets is also selective.  Just because he was targeted doesn't mean he could catch it.   Both had good days.  Pittman is a great blocker as well. 

[sb41champs]

Offensive playmakers ALWAYS want "the ball" more.

 

It is what it is.

 

You have to game plan for each individual week - and - not everyone is going to get the ball the same amount in every game.

[Catloaf]

God I’m so tired of player drama.

[ShuteAt168]

On 10/23/2023 at 11:24 PM, NewColtsFan said:

I think this might be Pittman’s first sign of real frustration in his 3.5 years as a Colt.  For now,  I wouldn’t read too much into it, unless of course if he does it again.  I’d be surprised.   He and his wife are smart and savvy.   
 

I remember late in his career, TYHilton  made a comment out of frustration and people here were shocked.   But it never happened again.  And that’s what I’d expect from Pitt.   I’m guessing he’ll calm down. 

Shocked about TY complaining? LOL. I remember TY ripping the offensive line and having to apologize, and there was another instance where he publicly criticized the Colts’ play calling. Those are two examples off the top of my head. TY was a key WR for the Colts for years but to act like he never caused any drama just isn’t true. I enjoy Pitt and his wife on social media too, but I never like it when a guy grumbles to the media because he isn't getting his. I know some people have more tolerance for that stuff than I do so each his own. 

[OLD FAN MAN]

On 10/23/2023 at 9:50 PM, Moosejawcolt said:

Hea in a contract year. He wants stats. He knows right now his value for next year is totally dependent upon what he does this year.  Stats or not, Pittman is who he is. A possession receiver with no wow factor. 

he needs to get open if he wants more targets

[DougDew]

On 10/23/2023 at 9:50 PM, Moosejawcolt said:

Hea in a contract year. He wants stats. He knows right now his value for next year is totally dependent upon what he does this year.  Stats or not, Pittman is who he is. A possession receiver with no wow factor. 

 

5 hours ago, OLD FAN MAN said:

he needs to get open if he wants more targets

This may be Pittman's first game of his NFL career where he played with another WR that is a legitimate target for the QB.  He's seeing what it feels like to share the load, something that should be looked at compared to other high priced receivers.  For example, Higgins has Chase to "compete" with for targets.  Pitt has had nobody, so his production should be looked at with that lens.

 

I can't comment if his statement was out of frustration from the loss, or a bit of concern about what his numbers will look like for the rest of the year if Downs continues to impress and even Pierce looking like he can be more consistent.  Pitt could be seeing that landscape and is letting his true feelings come out under the stress of a bad loss.

 

Its also kind of a bad look when these young players might possibly each have had the best games of their young careers, for Pitt to come out now and say that he wants more.

[tweezy32]

6 hours ago, OLD FAN MAN said:

he needs to get open if he wants more targets

He was open all game.

[DougDew]

9 minutes ago, tweezy32 said:

He was open all game.

A receiver has to be open at the right point in the route though.  It doesn't do much good unless he's open at the point of the play where he is the read and the QB is looking at him.  Is Pitt the 1st, 2nd, or 3rd read on that play? 

 

Being open before that point or after it doesn't do much good, and the fan has no idea when that point is, typically. 

 

[tweezy32]

 

[krunk]

he wasn't saying this when AR was in there. just got to get in sync with Minshew like he was with #5

[DougDew]

1 hour ago, tweezy32 said:

 

Does the narrator say that MPJ was open when he needed to be open (when Minshew is supposed to look for him within a particular play design)...or does it just show MPJ running open in general?   There is a difference that most fans and many internet analysts don't understand.

[masterlock]

This is just noise. It's a team sport, and other players want the ball too. 

[BlackTiger]

This was an over reaction by MP and by some of you posting here.  Hes getting targets, MInshew probably isnt the ideal qb for his skill set though 

 

WR in a contract year wants the ball, go figure.  

[tweezy32]

36 minutes ago, DougDew said:

Does the narrator say that MPJ was open when he needed to be open (when Minshew is supposed to look for him within a particular play design)...or does it just show MPJ running open in general?   There is a difference that most fans and many internet analysts don't understand.

i mean watch the video, he gets open pretty quickly on a lot of routes lol

[Restinpeacesweetchloe]

There you go.

 

 

[Restinpeacesweetchloe]

 

[GoColts8818]

1 hour ago, Restinpeacesweetchloe said:

There you go.

 

 

Much ado about nothing.

[Chrisaaron1023]

1 hour ago, Restinpeacesweetchloe said:

 

Just what I expected... his personality doesnt scream diva at all... he's fine sunday was a hard fought battle for him it seemed.. the taunting penalty told us that 

[Moosejawcolt]

On 10/23/2023 at 10:56 PM, NewColtsFan said:

Michael Pittman has as clean a record as any Colts player the last 4 years.   He’s 100 percent a team player.   He hasn’t uttered a single negative word about his contract situation.   He’s always been about the team. 
 

Now he makes a comment after a frustrating loss and you conclude he’s jealous of a teammate.   According to you, he’s not happy for his teammate’s success,  he’s jealous of him.   

 

You may follow the Colts wins and losses, but apparently you don’t follow the players too closely.   You don’t like Pittman the player so you decide to rip Pittman the person.    
 

How sad….     

 

i totally agree he has  been a team guy. However, he just saw Taylor get an extension by basically sitting out and wanting to get traded. Pittman has been the good soldier and how do you think he feels? He feels that he is being under utilized and he knows with every poor performance, stat wise, his value just remains the same and/or plummets. That is why I said rewarding Taylor was wrong because of numerous reasons and one of my main issues was how does it look to the rest of the team.

[DougDew]

3 hours ago, tweezy32 said:

i mean watch the video, he gets open pretty quickly on a lot of routes lol

I get that, and that's good for a contract.  Just wondering if the play design says that the QB is suppose to look MPJs way at that time or if the QB is looking at AP or Downs, or Granson, etc  I doubt that MPJ is the first look on every play.

 

Just saying that HCs and GMs look at this stuff with greater knowledge than we do.

[Restinpeacesweetchloe]

 

[ShuteAt168]

35 minutes ago, Moosejawcolt said:

i totally agree he has  been a team guy. However, he just saw Taylor get an extension by basically sitting out and wanting to get traded. Pittman has been the good soldier and how do you think he feels? He feels that he is being under utilized and he knows with every poor performance, stat wise, his value just remains the same and/or plummets. That is why I said rewarding Taylor was wrong because of numerous reasons and one of my main issues was how does it look to the rest of the team.

“The locker room is watching.” That’s one of CB’s greatest-hits quotes. (Pitt did a good job of cleaning his comments up today.) 

[NewColtsFan]

1 hour ago, Moosejawcolt said:

i totally agree he has  been a team guy. However, he just saw Taylor get an extension by basically sitting out and wanting to get traded. Pittman has been the good soldier and how do you think he feels? He feels that he is being under utilized and he knows with every poor performance, stat wise, his value just remains the same and/or plummets. That is why I said rewarding Taylor was wrong because of numerous reasons and one of my main issues was how does it look to the rest of the team.

Let me finish a sentence you wrote….

 

Pittman feels like he’s been underutilized in one game.  
 

In.   One.   Game.  
 

Pitt has been the team leader in Targets and receptions all season.   And in this last game, Minshew threw only 23 passes.   That’s it.   How many targets and receptions is anyone going to get when the QB only throws 23 passes?    For right now, this is a one time thing.  If Pitt does it again, then maybe we have an issue.  But until then, I don’t see what you see. 

 

By the way, you still haven’t answered my question I out to you.   Why have you flip-flopped this year in Ballard?   You spent the off-season saying you were going to cut him some slack.  The team is 3-4 without AR for a fair amount of time and playing the backup.  So 3-4 is roughly what you might expect.   But you’ve now done a 180 and are banging the drum for Ballard to be fired.   What happened?   What’s changed for you?  

[NewColtsFan]

1 hour ago, Moosejawcolt said:

i totally agree he has  been a team guy. However, he just saw Taylor get an extension by basically sitting out and wanting to get traded. Pittman has been the good soldier and how do you think he feels? He feels that he is being under utilized and he knows with every poor performance, stat wise, his value just remains the same and/or plummets. That is why I said rewarding Taylor was wrong because of numerous reasons and one of my main issues was how does it look to the rest of the team.

By the way, there’s a Pittman story up on ESPN.com.   Read it.   You’ll think I dictated the words for him to say.   You’d think Pitt has been reading my multiple posts supporting him.   To sum it up…. Frustration over a tough loss got the best of him.    I strongly recommend you read it.  
 

You’ve misread the situation….   Again. 

[DougDew]

10 minutes ago, NewColtsFan said:

Let me finish a sentence you wrote….

 

Pittman feels like he’s been underutilized in one game.  
 

In.   One.   Game.  
 

Pitt has been the team leader in Targets and receptions all season.   And in this last game, Minshew threw only 23 passes.   That’s it.   How many targets and receptions is anyone going to get when the QB only throws 23 passes?    For right now, this is a one time thing.  If Pitt does it again, then maybe we have an issue.  But until then, I don’t see what you see. 

 

By the way, you still haven’t answered my question I out to you.   Why have you flip-flopped this year in Ballard?   You spent the off-season saying you were going to cut him some slack.  The team is 3-4 without AR for a fair amount of time and playing the backup.  So 3-4 is roughly what you might expect.   But you’ve now done a 180 and are banging the drum for Ballard to be fired.   What happened?   What’s changed for you?  

Look at it this way.  The team scores 38 points and two other receivers have better or equal games than he had.  Is that really the time to mention how he feels he should have gotten the ball more?  Over whom, Downs, AP, JT, or Moss?  If the Colts don't have success on offense, yes, but when he is maybe the least material player on a 38 point effort?  He's seeing contract year, period.

 

I agree, its only one game.  Another way to see it though, he brings up how little he was used probably during the only game he was not the primary target....or, he raised the issue in 100% of those games he's played.  

 

And I agree that frustration brought it out.  But those words do indicate something, no?  Or are they a complete misspeak?

 

I don't think this is a big deal, but it is weird.

[NewColtsFan]

1 hour ago, DougDew said:

Look at it this way.  The team scores 38 points and two other receivers have better or equal games than he had.  Is that really the time to mention how he feels he should have gotten the ball more?  Over whom, Downs, AP, JT, or Moss?  If the Colts don't have success on offense, yes, but when he is maybe the least material player on a 38 point effort?  He's seeing contract year, period.

 

I agree, its only one game.  Another way to see it though, he brings up how little he was used probably during the only game he was not the primary target....or, he raised the issue in 100% of those games he's played.  

 

And I agree that frustration brought it out.  But those words do indicate something, no?  Or are they a complete misspeak?

 

I don't think this is a big deal, but it is weird.

 

There’s a written interview with Pittman up on ESPN.   As I have been writing in multiple posts, Pittman explained it was a very tough game to lose and he didn’t handle himself well.  Frustration got the best of him.   He spoke with Colts reporters today to explain himself.    It’s not hard to understand.  The Pittman you can read about today is the same Michael Pittman that he’s been for 3.5 years since becoming a Colt.   Great kid.

 

I think people who are reading something completely different have an agenda that is much much bigger than MPJ.  

[DougDew]

22 minutes ago, NewColtsFan said:

 

There’s a written interview with Pittman up on ESPN.   As I have been writing in multiple posts, Pittman explained it was a very tough game to lose and he didn’t handle himself well.  Frustration got the best of him.   He spoke with Colts reporters today to explain himself.    It’s not hard to understand.  The Pittman you can read about today is the same Michael Pittman that he’s been for 3.5 years since becoming a Colt.   Great kid.

 

I think people who are reading something completely different have an agenda that is much much bigger than MPJ.  

Yes. Frustration caused him to blurt out what he was thinking instead of being in a situation that would allow him to spin what he was thinking and say something different.  Like he did in the interview. 
 

I think he had contract on his mind.  And he probably thinks he’s a better player than the other guys who got the ball. I don’t have a problem with that. 

[NewColtsFan]

Just now, DougDew said:

Yes. Frustration caused him to blurt out what he was thinking instead of being in a situation that would allow him to spin what he was thinking and say something different.  Like he did in the interview. 
 

I think he had contract on his mind.  And he probably thinks he’s a better player than the other guys who got the ball. I don’t have a problem with that. 

Im confident that I don’t agree with a single word you wrote.   Not one.   

[DougDew]

9 minutes ago, NewColtsFan said:

Im confident that I don’t agree with a single word you wrote.   Not one.   

he’s a football player being criticized for being honest in an after game presser.  It’s no big deal.  But he likely meant what he said. 
 

I don’t see the need to defend these guys like it’s a personal offense. 

[NewColtsFan]

31 minutes ago, DougDew said:

he’s a football player being criticized for being honest in an after game presser.  It’s no big deal.  But he likely meant what he said. 
 

I don’t see the need to defend these guys like it’s a personal offense. 

No big deal?   Perhaps you’re not reading most of the threads?   But the posts I see are strongly against what Pittman said.  Many here think his comments were shallow, selfish, and self centered.   Many here are not casually dismissing MPJ’s comments,  as you appear to be.  Many are harshly critical of Pitt.   Are you not seeing any of that?   

[DougDew]

16 minutes ago, NewColtsFan said:

No big deal?   Perhaps you’re not reading most of the threads?   But the posts I see are strongly against what Pittman said.  Many here think his comments were shallow, selfish, and self centered.   Many here are not casually dismissing MPJ’s comments,  as you appear to be.  Many are harshly critical of Pitt.   Are you not seeing any of that?   

I think all of those things about his comments.  But I don’t expect football players to be anything different than selfish, shallow, and self centered when it comes to things that impact their next contract.  I expect him to be concerned about losing impact.

 

what are people saying. That he should just be concerned about taking one for the team in a season that is generally a throw away.  So the colts can win 8 games instead of 6. Why would any football player really care about that when it’s a contract year   
 

I believe he was honest.  I believe he was being self centered.  And it’s no big deal, so I’m not going to pretend he’s really an angel deep down.   

[compuls1v3]

Frustration.  Many posters here were right.

 

 

https://www.colts.com/_mobileview/news/referees-officiating-browns-loss-penalties-michael-pittman-jr-comments?mcid=&tags=QX8R7xO%2Cd6Dkb4g%2CdNtMCfg%2CmucUmbQ%2CsX-s-MA%2CfbAllUsers%2CfbHighContentConsumers%2CfbNflSurveyRespondentsContentViewers2023%2CfbUsaDomestic1DayAudience%2C&language_code=en

[Kyle]

It's a contract year and the jury's still out on if we want him back and how much he's worth.  Let's gameplan to get him the ball and see if he can get open and what happens. Win or lose, at least we can find out what he's worth

[Restinpeacesweetchloe]

56 minutes ago, Kyle said:

It's a contract year and the jury's still out on if we want him back and how much he's worth.  Let's gameplan to get him the ball and see if he can get open and what happens. Win or lose, at least we can find out what he's worth

Jury  isn’t out. How many QB has he had and he has produced with everyone.

[Kyle]

9 hours ago, Restinpeacesweetchloe said:

Jury  isn’t out. How many QB has he had and he has produced with everyone.

So you think the team has decided they are going to resign him and how much they want to pay him in his next contract? I dont. The jury is out, and this year will mean a lot towards his next contract.  I hope he balls out the rest of the year, shows he's worth 20 mil a year, and we keep him.  

[bluebombers87]

It wouldn’t surprise me if the colts have already offered a contract extension to him and it was less than what he thinks he can get. Which I don’t blame him. 
 

So he’s using this season to try and show his value to both the colts and the league. I would love to keep him as he is a pretty good WR2 but a lacking WR1. I’m not knocking the guy, he’s good and has games where he rocks it. Although in fairness, the QBs throwing to him haven’t been very good either. 
 

I love passion from players. Don’t mind him at all expressing his emotions. From a coach’s perspective, you can get a lot out of passionate players.

[ADnum1]

21 hours ago, Moosejawcolt said:

i totally agree he has  been a team guy. However, he just saw Taylor get an extension by basically sitting out and wanting to get traded. Pittman has been the good soldier and how do you think he feels? He feels that he is being under utilized and he knows with every poor performance, stat wise, his value just remains the same and/or plummets. That is why I said rewarding Taylor was wrong because of numerous reasons and one of my main issues was how does it look to the rest of the team.

Pittman needs to learn one very valuable life lesson.

 

The squeaky wheel gets the grease !

[jvan1973]

1 hour ago, PRnum1 said:

Pittman needs to learn one very valuable life lesson.

 

The squeaky wheel gets the grease !

Or it gets replaced 

[Superman]

5 hours ago, bluebombers87 said:

It wouldn’t surprise me if the colts have already offered a contract extension to him and it was less than what he thinks he can get. Which I don’t blame him. 
 

So he’s using this season to try and show his value to both the colts and the league. I would love to keep him as he is a pretty good WR2 but a lacking WR1. I’m not knocking the guy, he’s good and has games where he rocks it. Although in fairness, the QBs throwing to him haven’t been very good either. 
 

I love passion from players. Don’t mind him at all expressing his emotions. From a coach’s perspective, you can get a lot out of passionate players.

 

Pittman has been the consummate pro his entire time in the NFL. Over this offseason, while Taylor went scorched earth for a contract, Pittman showed up and put in the work, with no complaints, and shrugged off any contract questions. He's playing basically every snap on offense, and doing the dirty work. We've had six different starting QBs in his three and a half years, and all he's done is come to work and do his job.

 

I think he's allowed one little slip-up in a postgame presser, especially after such a brutal loss. Especially after he comes back and owns it like he has.

 

Pittman is a good dude. He basically embodies everything the Colts say they want in a player. And I love the competitiveness and passion from him.

 

Like you, I don't know if we should pay him what I think the market rate will be, but I sure do like having the guy on the team.