As Colts' Woods, Granson Rise, is Alie-Cox’s Time Running Out?

With young Indianapolis Colts tight ends Kylen Granson and Jelani Woods making plays while Mo Alie-Cox is quiet, is the veteran's time with the team running out?

The Indianapolis Colts have had their issues in 2022, but it hasn’t been all bad. With rookie tight end Jelani Woods and second-year man Kylen Granson, there has been irrefutable promise shown from both.

Last week against the Pittsburgh Steelers, Woods compiled single-game career bests with 8 catches for 98 yards, both of which are the most by any tight end this year for the Colts.

This leaves No. 1 tight end Mo Alie-Cox, who has been on the Colts since 2018 after being undrafted out of Virginia Commonwealth. Five years later, and with a new contract, it’s apparent that Alie-Cox hasn’t performed up to expectations. With this being said, let’s break down the money, the mayhem, and the possibility of a trade, with the veteran tight end.

Pro Football Focus has Alie-Cox as the 64th-ranked tight end in the NFL this season with a grade of 50.5 He is also 57th in receiving grade (53.5) and 56th in run blocking (46.9). These aren’t marks that will jump off the page in a positive light, at least not for a starting tight end.

Another interesting set of numbers is the lack of production in the receiving game. Through nearly five full seasons, Alie-Cox has 86 catches, 1,113 yards, and 10 touchdowns, most of this coming from his 2020 season with Philip Rivers, compiling 31 catches for 394 yards and 2 scores.

To put this into perspective, former Colts tight end Jack Doyle caught 80 passes for 690 yards and 4 touchdowns on his way to a Pro Bowl nomination, and that was mostly with then-backup Jacoby Brissett.

This year hasn’t proved much better, with 12 total games and only 16 catches for 177 yards and 2 touchdowns to show for it. Woods caught half of the passes in a single contest and produced over half of the yards. Not to mention, it’s not Alie-Cox, but Granson who leads the charge for the position this year, sitting at 25 receptions for 249 yards (both are team leads at tight end).

When you put through a new contract for a player at such a crucial position, then get a lack of numbers like that, it’s a bit discouraging. With the money being brought up, let’s take a gander at the contract, shall we?

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According to Spotrac.com, Alie-Cox is currently on a three-year, $17.5 million deal. This was made official this offseason and was done in the hopes that it would help catapult Alie-Cox to be the type of tight end the Colts had in Doyle. With the size and frame, it looked like new quarterback Matt Ryan would be the perfect signal-caller to make a star out of Alie-Cox. So far, this hasn’t panned out.

With two other tight ends making a name, and the potential of currently injured rookie Andrew Ogletree, this leaves the Colts in a scenario where they could shop a tight-end needy team that may benefit from Alie-Cox being in their uniform.

With the trade deadline passed, it won’t be this year. However, if the Colts were to shop Alie-Cox in 2023, they would save $5.3 million and a dead cap of nearly $2.4 million.

In my humble football opinion, it would be beneficial to keep him for 2023 for potential blocking and short-yardage packages, maybe even two-tight end sets with Woods or Granson. But, once 2024 arrives, they have a potential out on his contract and would incur no dead cap money and then can maximize savings with $5.9 million to work with.

Regardless of how or if they trade Alie-Cox, the Colts have to come to terms with the fact that he may not be what they thought. It depends on what they see in Ogletree, Granson, and Woods that will ultimately dictate how they play the contract game.

As the Colts head to Dallas for Week 13, the offense will have Granson back on the field from being gone in Week 12 from an illness, so it will be interesting to see how these three tight ends are used here on out and at AT&T Stadium on Sunday.

There are positives to Alie-Cox, without question, but with a five-year portfolio, it’s been underwhelming. Mix in sub-100 catches and very inconsistent run-blocking where it’s needed and you have a viable reason to trade while Alie-Cox is still around a respectable age and get something significant out of it for the future.

We will see how the Colts handle this predicament.

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