- Keenan Allen agreed Monday to a one-year contract worth up to $8.32 million.
- Allen led the NFL last season with 34 catches and 29 first downs on third down.
- Indianapolis traded wide receiver Michael Pittman Jr. in March and has Alec Pierce on the physically unable to perform list.
- The Colts are +375 to win the AFC South, behind Houston at +135 and Jacksonville at +200.
INDIANAPOLIS – Wide receiver Keenan Allen agreed to terms with the Indianapolis Colts on Monday night on a one-year contract worth up to $8.32 million. The deal gives head coach Shane Steichen a veteran target for a receiver room that traded Michael Pittman Jr. in March and has its highest-paid player on the physically unable to perform list.
Terms Are Reported, Not Announced
ESPN reported the agreement late Monday, and the Colts had not posted a corresponding roster move as of Tuesday morning. The $8.32 million figure is the maximum value of the deal, not a guarantee, and Allen had remained unsigned into the third week of August.
He turns 35 in April and is entering his 14th NFL season. Indianapolis is his third team in three years, following a 2024 season in Chicago and a return to the Los Angeles Chargers in 2025.
Steichen and Allen already know each other. Steichen spent 2014 through 2020 on the Chargers staff, serving as interim offensive coordinator in 2019 and coordinator in 2020, which covers seven of the first eight seasons of Allen’s career. Allen made five straight Pro Bowls beginning in 2017, six in total.
Pittman Traded, Pierce On The PUP List
Indianapolis has been thin at receiver since March. On March 13 the Colts moved Michael Pittman Jr. to Pittsburgh, picking up a 2026 sixth-round pick and surrendering a seventh-rounder in the swap. Pittman drew 111 targets in 2025, one behind rookie tight end Tyler Warren for the team lead and more than any Indianapolis wide receiver. Pittsburgh signed him to a three-year, $59 million deal.
Days earlier, the Colts had re-signed Alec Pierce to a four-year, $116 million contract, the richest ever for a free-agent receiver. Pierce had a cleanup procedure on a troublesome ankle in late March and missed the offseason program, and the Colts placed him on the active/physically unable to perform list at the start of training camp. Players on that list can join every team activity except practice and can come off it during the preseason.
That leaves Josh Downs in the slot with Ashton Dulin and Nick Westbrook-Ikhine behind him. Daniel Jones is the quarterback throwing to them, on a two-year, $88 million contract signed in March and working back from a torn Achilles tendon suffered in December 2025.
What Allen Still Does At 34
Allen led the NFL in 2025 with 34 receptions and 29 receiving first downs on third down, the down that decides drives. A team that traded its volume target and is waiting on its deep threat has an obvious use for that.
The rest of the 2025 line reads like a decline and mostly is not one. Allen caught 81 of 122 targets for 777 yards and four scores, a 66% catch rate on the most targets any Chargers receiver saw. His 9.6 yards per reception was a career low, which is the number that matters for how Indianapolis will use him: a short-area, high-volume profile, a receiver working underneath rather than stretching a defense.
The career totals are the rest of the argument. Allen has 1,055 receptions across 171 games, 13th all time, with 12,051 receiving yards and 70 touchdown catches.
The Offense Was Run-First And Efficient
Expected points added per play grades every snap by what it does to a team’s scoring outlook, and the goal on offense is to keep that figure climbing. Indianapolis produced 0.0858 EPA per play in 2025, seventh in the league, on a 49.6% success rate that ranked sixth. Both are genuinely good marks, not close calls.
The split underneath is the point. The Colts generated 0.054 EPA per rushing attempt, the best figure in the NFL and one of only six positive rushing marks in the league last season. Through the air they managed 0.0975 EPA per dropback, 13th, with an explosive-play rate of 13.4%. This was a team that won its downs on the ground and asked its passing game to be adequate.
The defense was the softer half, allowing 0.0316 EPA per play, in the bottom third of the league. Colts win totals and division prices stay posted through the preseason at legal NFL betting apps and sites.
The AFC South Board
Indianapolis sits third on its own division board, one of the futures markets carried across legal sports betting.
| Team | Odds to win the AFC South |
|---|---|
| Houston Texans | +135 |
| Jacksonville Jaguars | +200 |
| Indianapolis Colts | +375 |
| Tennessee Titans | +900 |
A price of +375 implies roughly 21%. Whether the Colts’ actual chance of winning the division beats what that number pays is the entire question, and a 34-year-old possession receiver on a one-year deal is not the sort of addition that moves a futures market.
Those same division prices sit on the board at retail counters and online books across Indiana sports betting.
Houston fronts the board on defense rather than offense. The Texans allowed minus-0.109 EPA per play in 2025, second best in football, while their offense came in at minus-0.0034 per play, slightly below average. Jacksonville was the more balanced team, at 0.0554 EPA per play on offense and minus-0.0591 allowed. Tennessee was last in the division on both sides, with an offense at minus-0.1065 per play.
Indianapolis opens the regular season at home against the Baltimore Ravens on Sunday, Sept. 13.
